I met a stranger online and we we’re sending messages back and fourth. He liked my pictures and what I had to say. I was maybe 13. He says I am beautiful and that he is a traveling musician. He send me a pic of a youngish guy. I liked talking with him and he was always willing to listen and offer his advice. He was there for me and I considered us new friends. ‘Please we have to meet while I’m in your town!’ He says. ‘I’ll be there in your home town very soon!’ Although I very much liked talking to him.. I wasn’t much of a music fan. I had never been to a show before and wasn’t excited to stand around a bunch of other randos while just ‘listening’ to a rando preform. I can listen to a recording and be much more content in my own space. I shuffled around the question. Why did people always want to meet me in person, can’t we just talk here and there.. But he insisted. ‘I can even help pick you up and give you a ride to the show with me.’ But my hermit self just didn’t feel like going out. ‘I really like you. Can I just call you?’ He asked. I didn’t actually have to see him if I just chatted with him on the phone and I didn’t really see how it could go wrong. ‘You don’t even have to say much.’ I sat and thought and eventually agreed because he was so persistant and again I didn’t see how it could go wrong. He said through our messages that he was just going to make a quick call, just a few mins, and to not hang up. But it was so late, If I get caught I’ll be in a lot of trouble for being awake. He said he just needed me to listen.. Okay. *Ring ring* ‘Hello?’ I whispered. … nothing just some shuffling noises coming through. I think he said like ‘Shh, just listen and don’t hang up.’ So I didn’t say anything else and just did as he said, listened. I could hear his breathing and.. something else, but I couldn’t really understand what it was? I thought he was maybe getting something around his home, but his breathing was.. labored? So i’m listening to these noises, his breathing, and then I hear him grumble like he hurt himself or something and then he sighs, says thanks, and I just said something like ‘mmhm, okay bye’ LOL and hung up. I didn’t know what that was all about but I kinda had a gut feeling. I didn’t really know what to think. It was just a weird thing that people did and I wasn’t really in any danger so I just brushed off those sorts of things and wouldn’t tell anyone. It was normal to me, and I didn’t really get it. I just thought people we’re weird like that, they just do things like that and that was okay. I met so many strange people growing up, and looking back at it now, i’m pretty darn lucky. This was one of my lesser encounters… Don’t get me started with my piano teacher… Or the one guy that trapped me in at an abandoned gas station to ‘chat’… Heck. My first boss.. All reaal friendly people. I just give the benefit of the doubt to all. Am I still that naive? I don’t really like to admit it, but I think so.
