Yesterday, a car I didn’t recognise parked across the street from my house. I didn’t see it arrive, but I looked out the window as soon as I heard a loud bang and a man screaming. I can only assume he’d slammed his car door before yelling and gesticulating at a young woman who had been in the car with him. They were behind the car and she was standing in the street while he stood on the curb towering over her and waving his arms about.
I’m very much a live and let live person, but the man was being intimidating and verbally abusive, so I went out of my front door and stood staring at them. By the time I’d made it out of the house, they’d switched positions so that he had his back to me, but she could clearly see I was standing there watching them. She must have glanced in my direction because after a few seconds, he looked over his shoulder at me and immediately got back into the driver’s side of the car. She got in on the passenger side and they drove away.
It all happened very fast, and while I would not have approached them if it had gone on any longer, I would have continued standing where I was and phoned the police. Aggressive men scare me and because of that, I’d never physically intervene. I’ve been on the receiving end of entitled man behaviour from a stranger and it wasn’t pleasant. The best I could do was let her see that someone was aware while also letting him know he wasn’t invisible. It’s a shame I had to do anything at all.
Fig and Pen 