Instincts and creeps

Many years ago, while I was living in Los Angeles, I was walking home from my job on a Friday night. I had $10 in my wallet, which was my money for the weekend.  (That's how long ago it was - $10 could provide a weekend's entertainment plus gas.)  As I walked along the dark street, I saw two boys (maybe 14 or 15?) walking ahead of me, whispering together.  My hand tightened on my purse strap and my heart beat a little faster.

"Stop being so paranoid," I scolded myself.  "They're just kids, they're not criminals."  They peeled off in another direction and I kept walking.

About a minute later, one of them came running up behind me.  He had a knife, which I believe he planned to use to cut my purse strap, a snatch, not an assault.  He wasn't expecting me to turn around and start talking to him.  

The upshot of that event was that he got my $10 but let me keep my wallet, and I even got an apology from him.  I was rattled but not hurt.  This was the first of several muggings I experience during my time in L.A., the only one I saw, or felt, coming.  All the rest of them were hit and run, ambushes.

About a week ago, I decided to walk on a path I had driven past but never explored.  It was broad and straight, with houses on one side and a forested area on the other.  The day was fine and it was a pleasant stroll.  

I noticed that another, narrower path took off from the broad path into the trees, so I decided to take that walk as well.  As I started on that walk, I saw a man who looked very much as though he were going to walk the broad path.  But when I turned around a few moments later, he had instead followed into the trees, coming up behind me.  I stepped aside to let him pass, but as he kept walking, he turned around a few times to look at me.  I decided to back out of that area.  I just wasn't comfortable with what had looked to me like him deciding to follow me into the forest.

I walked about a half mile away to another path that led into the forested area.  Even though I was among trees, there was a big apartment complex in sight, and a well traveled road within sound, so I felt fairly safe.

As I walked along that second path, I came up behind two boys (again 14-15 or so) with skateboards.  They didn't seem to be doing much, not actively skating.  I saw them go up ahead of me, then turn off the path and go stand among the trees.  It creeped me out.  I couldn't think of why they would take their skateboards off the path.  It just didn't feel right.  So once again, I backed out of the trees and just walked along the road to my car.

I'm now grateful to my first young assailant.  My experience with him helped teach me that I should listen to my instincts.  If something doesn't feel right, I should honor that feeling and act on it.  I don't even need to be right about what I fear.  I don't know what would have happened if I hadn't backed out those two times.  I don't need to know.  All I need to know is that both those moments just weren't comfortable for me.