Let's Not Meet Again

Friendly Neighbor

I'd just like to say that this story is kind of on a borderline sexual assault story, but figured it was better suited here because it was only an attempt made, and since it was an ongoing encounter with an eccentric neighbor seeking me out multiple times it was suited to a forum for encounters with stalkers. If I'm wrong on this please inform me and I will remove the post myself; it's not my intent to intentionally violate the forum's rules.

When I was a little girl I used to have a friend that me and my little sister played with all the time. We'd be at her house almost every day, and would generally walk ourselves there and back. She lived in a back alley type road, behind and parallel to the street I lived on, and since I spent so much time with her I would often take this road to go home from school. I was friendly with most of the people who lived on this road, one man in particular was always pretty sweet to us. We called him Jamaican Dave, due to his thick accent to differentiate him in stories from other Dave's we knew. He would stop me and my sister on the street by his house to talk with us about simple things until we had to go, and he would always give us huge hugs at the end of our conversations; we really liked hanging out with him.

One day after our friend broke her leg I went to her house to bring her some food, and a get well card that I thought she might like. Her mother told me that she wasn't feeling well enough to talk to me personally, so I walked back home. This was the first time I'd encountered him by myself; he was friendly as ever to me, but the things that he said struck me as odd. He called me baby girl (which was not unusual for him) but this time around when he said it he would smirk or lick his lips at me. He demanded at least seven hugs during this particular conversation, and at one point fondled a heart earring I had in asking, "is this heart for me, baby girl?" I told him I had homework to do and left, but being as young as I was thought it was just Jamaican Dave being goofy again.

On the second/ last occasion I encountered him on this rode while I was alone, I had come back from this friends house. We'd used those iron on bead stencil things to make father's day presents; I made my dad a little heart, and proudly showed it off to Jamaican Dave after he called me over to his yard to check in on my friend and ask me about what I was doing. I let him examine it upon his request, and I guess he misinterpreted it to be a gift because he kept holding onto it and asked "Is this for me, baby girl?"

I didn't really respond to that because I'd told him it was for my father, and also I didn't know how give a proper response to it on account of bad problems with anxiety, and not wanting to offend him. Then he smiled and held it against his chest saying, "baby girl, that's so sweet of you." I just kind of nodded at that point, feeling a bit bummed and kind of weirded out because he got closer to me and touched both of my earrings; they were the same pair he'd fondled a few days ago.

He tugged on the left one and said, "This is my heart," and then tugged on the right, "and this heart is for you, baby girl. I just kind of froze on the spot; it suddenly didn't seem to me that it was just a friendly neighbor being silly, but that something bad might be happening. He asked me to hug him, I stood still, and he hugged me instead. Then he said this; "Baby girl, listen to what I'm telling you now; I like you, and if anyone asks I'll deny it. If you tell a friend I said that, and they come to me I will say 'I did not say that', but it's true baby girl. I want you to come over to my house on Tuesday this week, and make sure that nobody sees you come in." I told him I didn't want to, and I had to go home and hurried away from the scene.

I was too afraid to tell anybody, and I figured it would be the end of it if I stopped taking the back way, but one day playing in my yard with my sister he passed us holding a little girl's (I presume his daughter due to the resemblance) hand. He looked at me for a good while, waved, then touched his ear. I ran inside so fast I was panting, and eventually told my parents about the encounter. They said to never take that way again, and if he came by to tell them. We moved away years later, and I don't know what became of my friendly neighbor. Jamaican Dave, let's not meet again.