That Time At The Library
Once upon a time, 13 year old me, and my two best friends (one bold & one goofy) were at a public library. We were doing some research for a school project we had to work on, and pretty much minding our own business. Aside from whispering, when we needed to communicate, we were pretty quiet. Looking at books, taking notes, just doing our thing.
I’m sitting there, totally oblivious to anything, except the book I am reading, when “goofy” friend quietly gets our attention and says, “That guy has been staring at us. I don’t like it.”. We look over, and sure enough, some older dude is just menacingly STARING at us, smirking. We instantly felt uncomfortable.
Bold friend decides to call him out on it. I don’t recall what she said, but probably something along the lines of calling him a creep. He then comes over to us, leans over the table, jabbing his finger, and giving us an attitude. Claiming he could watch us all he wanted to, and that he was watching us because he knew we were going to steal books, “I know thieves when I see them!”. (?!?) We mocked him about that, because the kind of books we were reading were not things that would interest a typical teenage girl. They were clearly for school purposes.
He kept up with his attitude, and we all started to tell him to back off, and leave us alone. We were just studying, and not bothering anyone. He claimed he was going to get us kicked out. “For what?”, my bold friend asked. “For being unruly in the library, and stealing!”, then claiming he was going to call the cops. That was when my “goofy” friend spoke up and said, “Go ahead. Ask for my father. He should be on duty.” (her dad was a cop). The guy got really loud and upset, that was when the librarian noticed. She came over, and asked what was going on. Not even dropping his attitude for her, jabbing his finger in her face, he starts accusing us of stealing, etc. We told her we were just quietly studying when he came over and started bothering us. We even told her she could go through our backpacks to make sure we were not stealing. She didn’t check, she seemed she believed us, and was on our side the whole time. She kicked him out, and he was FURIOUS! Also, she was familiar with us. We were all geeks in some way, and would go to the library to borrow books, and movies, etc. She knew we were not trouble.
I am sure she knew there was something off about the guy. From her perspective, it was clear we were sitting there studying, and this older guy was hovering over us, yelling at us. It was oblivious that he had been the instigator.
As an adult I look back on that, and I wonder what his real intentions were. Overall, I guess he was just another man, being creepy, and trying to intimidate young girls. It makes me wonder what else he was capable of. Was he just a cranky old man who hates teens? Did he hate women in general? Was he some sort of offender? What was his real goal that day? I will never know.
Moral of the story:
Don’t be a creepy man in the library (or anywhere). Also, leave young girls alone.
