I went to visit Ethan in McDonald's whilst he was working today and claim my free Big Mac that Ethan had won (and then gave to me, he knows the way to my heart!) and as I was ordering from Ethan we had a little chat, mainly about my temptation to buy something else until Ethan informed me that it was actually sold out. However the man that was ordering next to me seemed amused at the 'friendliness' of our conversation, adding a comment or two which was fine. Ethan gave me my Big Mac and I went to sit down on a little table of my own to enjoy it. Then to my surprise the man that had ordered came and sat opposite me! The weird thing was there were plenty of other available tables and he didn't say anything when he sat down like 'Can I sit here?' or 'Is this seat taken?' he said nothing that acknowledged the fact that he had just sat down in what I felt was my personable bubble. After awkwardly trying to eat my burger without everything falling out whilst this mid 50 year old man was sat watching me (!) my coat fell on the floor so I went to pick it up which he commented on, but I didn't quite catch what he said so I just awkwardly laughed and to which he asks if I want to share his chips!
I'll admit I was slightly creeped out by him, probably because I'd been reading about the 3 kidnapped women in Ohio and we've been watching a lot of 24 where EVERYONE is suspicious. But it did make me think, in reality this man, other than being just a little bit weird didn't actually do or say anything that was threatening to me in anyway. He may have been a well intentioned man who had seen that I'd been chatty when I had ordered my food and then seen that I was sitting alone so thought he'd be friendly and come sit by me, and then offer to share his chips because I only had a burger and he had a large portion of chips.
Before I left to go home I went back over to Ethan as he wasn't serving anyone and said that the man was a little creepy, which Ethan agreed with as he was able to see where I was sitting and told me to be careful getting home and make sure he wasn't near me, which is exactly what I did, constantly looking over my shoulder to make sure I couldn't see him and that he wasn't following me.
It's sad that in our society we don't trust those around us, despite the fact that they may be kind well intentioned people because of the few awful people that do exist around us. Part of me hopes that the man was slightly 'dodgey' so I don't feel bad for having effectively rejected his kindness, but at the same time part of me feels you can never really be too careful. Such are the times we live in.
We were talking about this the other day. BB and I were on a bus talking to each other when an older couple joined in our conversation, all was fine until they started asking where we lived.
ReplyDeleteIt might have been because they recognised us (we're in the paper all the time lol) as they live near, but it just prickled me for some reason and we got off the bus a bit before we should have just so they weren't sure where we lived (if that makes sense).
It's so horrid that we have to be careful in this way and a sad indication of the world.