Today was a music festival (one down--two to go). I had to travel about an hour to reach it and I left a little before seven o'clock this morning. Following the festival I searched for a ladies room, found it full of young ladies between the ages of 14 and 18 and opted to stop at a rest area rather than brave the sea of incessantly talking feminine teens.
So I did.
I stopped at the rest area, locked my car, and began to walk inside. I found myself accompanied by a man who looked as though he'd been living at the rest area for a few days. He was very happy I stopped. Apparently, I'm great company for homeless men.
I indicated my need to go to the restroom. He continued chatting and escorted me to the door--and proceeded to follow me inside. I saw him enter, turned around, brushed past him and headed back to my car. I ran to it, got inside and locked the doors just in time to see him exit the ladies room, look at the door, point at the sign and begin to laugh.
I drove to the first McDonald's I could find and relieved myself there.
Then I threw up.
Clearly I am still haunted by being molested in the restroom. It happened a million years ago. It didn't happen today. Probably the very friendly man didn't even plan to harm me.
Still, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't terrified.
And I've made a new rule: Scary, homeless-looking men, regardless of friendliness, should not follow me into the bathroom. Ever.
I know that's a lot to ask, but I think it's reasonable to want people--all people--to not be creepy scary.
The end.
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I would have been scared too, glad you are safe.
ReplyDeleteGlad you weren't hurt. I, myself, had a very creepy experience with a rest area last night along I-16 West in Georgia.
ReplyDeleteIt was around midnight or one o'clock in the evening, and I pulled into a rest area to use the bathroom. There weren't that many cars there, and I saw this one older man kind of hanging around.
My first reaction to him was uneasy. Still, I decided to try to ignore him and go into the bathroom. When I got out of the stall, I found him using one of the urinals. I didn't think much of it but still felt uneasy around him.
Just a minute or two later, I had to go to the bathroom again (I had a lot to drink). When I left the stall, I found the man was back at the urinals yet again!
I washed my hands and saw him head outside. He had one of his hands in his pocket. I feared he had a gun and that he was waiting outside for me.
I finally decided to take my chances and go outside. While he wasn't standing right by the door, he was fairly close to it, and then, he spoke to me. He said that he wasn't going to bother me. I still didn't trust him and got as far away from him as possible.
I stayed in the car and tried to sleep in the driver's seat in case I needed to drive away fast to get away from the man. Fortunately, though, a few minutes passed, and the man got in his car and drove off. Still, I must admit that the incident was quite scary and weird.
Yeah--that's creepy, too. I think I'll steer clear of rest areas for a little while.
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