When I was 13 years old, I was walking from our farmhouse (we lived in a small safe town outside East Lansing, Michigan, where we had 20 acres and I had horses)–down to a bus stop that unfortunately was really too far for me to be walking alone, when a man in a maroon sedan pulled up next to me. I was on the passenger side of the car since I was walking as I should have been on the left and he was heading the opposite direction. He rolled down the window, said not a word, but was jacking off in the front seat–with a body member I’d never seen before and to me appeared about the size of an enormous balloon like those you see clowns make into dachshunds. I understood somehow that what he was doing was not right, rolled my eyes and kept walking. He went on over the hill and I walked fast (didn’t run) down to the bus stop. As I was waiting, he came back down over the hill, drove by, and stared at me. I stared right back at him. Called my mother as soon as I arrived in school.
Later, I picked him out of a line-up immediately. I didn’t have to testify because two older girls were going to do it, which left me off the hook.
It seemed like a bad thing at the time, made me afraid to be alone outside. Later I realized I really was lucky that is all he did and didn’t rape me or abduct me. SO lucky. But even that isn’t what made me really lucky. The whole thing turned out to be fortuitous.
Why do I say that? Because I never again was oblivious of my surroundings or blindly trusting. Not ever. It came in handy during several dating encounters that went sour. But I am certain it saved my life when I was in my late twenties.
I was driving our Cutlass Oldsmobile to my parents house from Romeo, MI to Haslett, MI, with my newborn son Josh in a car seat (in the front seat in those days). My husband was not with me. They had just finished the highway out where we lived and it was still deserted much of the day. As I drove, this man in another sedan (I have forgotten the color) drove up next to me, gesturing for me to roll down my window. I am not certain if he could see my child. He said in this too sweet, ingratiating voice, “Ma’am, your car is really vibrating in front. Something is wrong with the front end. Pull over and I’ll see if something is wrong.”
Nobody out there.
I could feel nothing wrong in the wheel or front end and my car was running fine. I nodded, but when he pulled in front of me and off on the side of the road, I drove right by him. He got back on the road and stayed right behind me right on my tail. I was within five miles of an exit I knew, so when I hit Lapeer, I got off and as I did, he tipped his hat to me as if to say, “You were smart. You get to live.”
I knew I was right.
The gas station could see nothing wrong with my car at all and when I got home, my brother drove in front and behind me and said there was nothing wrong with my car. He could see nothing obvious.
I really believe that if that first incident hadn’t happened when I was young, I would have stopped my car. And I knew without a shadow of a doubt he was going to kill me or abduct me.
It’s too bad that there are so many bad people out there, but unfortunately, there are a lot. Cities are more dangerous than ever, though clearly you aren’t safe out in the country, either.
So it was the first real time I realized we can’t always tell good circumstances from bad–even if we certainly can tell morally right from wrong! It is all a large interconnected chain–we do not really experience life linearly–as Einstein said. Something from the past may have no meaning until years later, and how we view things changes as things evolve. Not to mention, the past, present, and future all exist at once anyway. If we are in tune enough, we should realize the past and future all influence or are connected to the present.
I thing people who are psychic are just more in tune with that.
The fabric of Time — a Nova special I watched years ago.
Happy Tuesday. I have to have a stomach test tomorrow, so keep a good thought.
-L
L.E.K. 