Shorts: Like a Ghost
This evening I was on my way out to a movie. I walked a route I usually take to get to the train but felt something in subconscious tell me to go a different way. I ignored it and kept walking because nothing has ever happened and I was running later than I'd like. While on this route, I experienced something highly peculiar and fairly terrifying.
As I was walking through the park, I gave a neighborly half-smile to a mid-50s aged man on a bike as I passed. Thought nothing more of it. I had headphones in but the music was low enough that I could hear things in my surroundings. Then I heard the click of bike spokes. In my peripheral view, there was the man from the park. He followed almost right next to me for a smidge more than a solid block and it was the most terrifying walk down a block of my entire life to date. He finally stopped when I made an abrupt right onto a street with many more people. Below are my thoughts:
Thoughts that ran through my head during:
Is that a bike?
IS THIS MAN FOLLOWING ME?
I️ could be raped
I️s he trying to rob me?
The car on the other side of me is his accomplice
I’ve never had to fight before I️ don’t know how to do this
He’s trying to scare me
It’s working
I’m terrified
**sent up a quick prayer**
What does he want??
I️ should ask him
But how????
I️ just want it to stop
Why is he still there??
Turn and look at him so he knows you're aware
HE JUST LOOKED RIGHT BACK AT YOU LIKE IT WAS NOTHING!!!
**recited a bible verse from memory**
What does he want?
ASK HIM
Just say it
Nope. Too scared
Is he mental?
What if he spazzes?
He's like a ghost, just hanging there
There aren’t even that many people around if something were actually to happen
I️ walk this way all the time wtf
Please please PLEASE sir just stop
Thoughts after the fact:
That’s never happened to me before
Street harassment really needs to be addressed
Also the state of mental health in the city
People are out here getting lose in the streets because the state doesn’t care??
What does it mean when people say “stay safe?”
If someone is doing something TO ME, how is it MY job to stay safe?
Why is the onus on me and not them? The perpetrator should be the one to take responsibility
I️ need to come up with something to say in the event that ever happens again
Dear God please NEVER let it happen again
THIS is why talking about women getting cat-called on the street and harassed by men who think nothing of it is so important. We all know what we should do and should say but in the moment? It can be so terrifying you literally freeze.
As I was walking through the park, I gave a neighborly half-smile to a mid-50s aged man on a bike as I passed. Thought nothing more of it. I had headphones in but the music was low enough that I could hear things in my surroundings. Then I heard the click of bike spokes. In my peripheral view, there was the man from the park. He followed almost right next to me for a smidge more than a solid block and it was the most terrifying walk down a block of my entire life to date. He finally stopped when I made an abrupt right onto a street with many more people. Below are my thoughts:
Thoughts that ran through my head during:
Is that a bike?
IS THIS MAN FOLLOWING ME?
I️ could be raped
I️s he trying to rob me?
The car on the other side of me is his accomplice
I’ve never had to fight before I️ don’t know how to do this
He’s trying to scare me
It’s working
I’m terrified
**sent up a quick prayer**
What does he want??
I️ should ask him
But how????
I️ just want it to stop
Why is he still there??
Turn and look at him so he knows you're aware
HE JUST LOOKED RIGHT BACK AT YOU LIKE IT WAS NOTHING!!!
**recited a bible verse from memory**
What does he want?
ASK HIM
Just say it
Nope. Too scared
Is he mental?
What if he spazzes?
He's like a ghost, just hanging there
There aren’t even that many people around if something were actually to happen
I️ walk this way all the time wtf
Please please PLEASE sir just stop
Thoughts after the fact:
That’s never happened to me before
Street harassment really needs to be addressed
Also the state of mental health in the city
People are out here getting lose in the streets because the state doesn’t care??
What does it mean when people say “stay safe?”
If someone is doing something TO ME, how is it MY job to stay safe?
Why is the onus on me and not them? The perpetrator should be the one to take responsibility
I️ need to come up with something to say in the event that ever happens again
Dear God please NEVER let it happen again
 |
| Taken by me, somewhere in Chelsea |
THIS is why talking about women getting cat-called on the street and harassed by men who think nothing of it is so important. We all know what we should do and should say but in the moment? It can be so terrifying you literally freeze.
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