timing is everything
Oct. 23rd, 2005 06:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
adrian_turtleIt was cold, dark, and drizzling when I left work Friday evening, a little later than usual. I went to my usual bus stop on Mall Road, the one between the mall parking lot and the non-mall shops and offices. Mall security has a little truck with a yellow strobe that patrols their parking lots, setting off migraines. (I don't know how they think it makes anyone or anything more secure.) When the strobe came by, I pulled my hood over my head and closed my eyes. When I looked again, the bus had gone by, and there wouldn't be another for an hour. So I walked over to the mall to wait inside where I could read.
About 10 minutes before I expected the bus, a group of 6 middle school girls came to the stop. I was standing by the door, close enough to the puddle of light to see my book, trying to keep an eye out for the bus. Some of the girls were showing off to the others, with a lot of nervous laughter. It wasn't at all clear to an outsider if the name-calling and pushing were all in good fun, or if there was serious bullying going on. Maybe the aggressive ones were just showing what someone else had done, characters in a story. Maybe they were showing what they'd done to others, in order to coerce the other two. I was uncomfortable with the situation. There were 6 of them, sneering at me insofar as they noticed me at all...I still expect gangs of adolescent bullies to regard me as prey. I still want to hide from them. I stayed near the doorway and turned pages in the book I wasn't reading anymore.
Then I heard a head smack against a brick wall, and the nervous whining escalated to begging. It didn't look like 4 on 2 anymore. I glared at them. "Hey." I didn't really need to say anything else. Just being there, saying anything at all was enough to interrupt the moment. The 5 of them melted away from the girl against the wall before I managed to say "leave her alone." They were all rolling their eyes and making fun of how stupid and unreasonable I was. Couldn't I see what was going on? I made eye contact with the girl against the wall. "Are you sure you're ok?" Her knuckles were white on the strap of the purse they'd been trying to take from her. Yeah, of course she's fine. Can't I tell they're just playing?
I nodded and went back to the doorway. For the rest of the time until the bus came, the six of them were reasonably united in their resentment of intrusive adults. Or so it sounded.
About 10 minutes before I expected the bus, a group of 6 middle school girls came to the stop. I was standing by the door, close enough to the puddle of light to see my book, trying to keep an eye out for the bus. Some of the girls were showing off to the others, with a lot of nervous laughter. It wasn't at all clear to an outsider if the name-calling and pushing were all in good fun, or if there was serious bullying going on. Maybe the aggressive ones were just showing what someone else had done, characters in a story. Maybe they were showing what they'd done to others, in order to coerce the other two. I was uncomfortable with the situation. There were 6 of them, sneering at me insofar as they noticed me at all...I still expect gangs of adolescent bullies to regard me as prey. I still want to hide from them. I stayed near the doorway and turned pages in the book I wasn't reading anymore.
Then I heard a head smack against a brick wall, and the nervous whining escalated to begging. It didn't look like 4 on 2 anymore. I glared at them. "Hey." I didn't really need to say anything else. Just being there, saying anything at all was enough to interrupt the moment. The 5 of them melted away from the girl against the wall before I managed to say "leave her alone." They were all rolling their eyes and making fun of how stupid and unreasonable I was. Couldn't I see what was going on? I made eye contact with the girl against the wall. "Are you sure you're ok?" Her knuckles were white on the strap of the purse they'd been trying to take from her. Yeah, of course she's fine. Can't I tell they're just playing?
I nodded and went back to the doorway. For the rest of the time until the bus came, the six of them were reasonably united in their resentment of intrusive adults. Or so it sounded.
