The girl stands in the queue waiting for her bus oblivious
to the shabbily dressed guy who’s ambled up behind her. He mumbles something incoherently;
she turns and gives him a courteous smile then returns to peering down the road
looking for any sign of her ride home.
The minutes tick by as she snuggles her hands deeper into
her pockets to protect them from the icy chill and other people in the queue
become the last thing on her mind.
That is until she realises that far from being uninterested,
the man behind has become very attentive indeed.
Frozen not through cold but with shock, she feels him pressing
himself against her, much closer than is acceptable in a bus queue. The more
she moves forward to get away from him the nearer he gets ,his heavy breathing
hot on the back of her neck.
Rooted to the spot by fear she panics about what to do so it’s
sheer lucky chance that at this point her bus slides up to the stop and thank
the lord it’s not the one he wants.
The bus doors slam shut and she sits in her seat with heart
beating fast and relief coursing through her veins all the way home.
A couple of years later, she’s changed her job and working
for a well known footwear brand as a member of their stockroom/ delivery team.
She hears the older more experienced members joke about the
delivery driver and how he makes them give him a kiss before he’ll give them
their stock. A peck on the cheek in return for a van load of shoes she hears
them say, what a giggle!
Except ,as she finds out some weeks later , it’s not just a
peck on the cheek , the delivery driver is verging on retirement age, devoid of
teeth and that harmless little kiss is a full on wet slobber on the lips. For
someone with little experience of boys getting her first snog from a pensioner
is not the dream moment she thought it would be, even less so the day he takes
to slipping a bit of tongue in.
The thought of having to be alone with him in that dark
basement makes her flesh crawl but she doesn’t want to say anything because
everyone else sees it as a laugh so why doesn’t she?
Is she just being silly, frigid and naive? Isn’t the
suggestive touching and noises just all part of the big joke?
Making numerous excuses over as many weeks to not have to
bring the stock in by herself , one day another member of staff noticed
this ,took her aside and said “ is it just me or is his flirtiness
getting just a bit too much ?”
It turns out this girl had been feeling the same way too but
like her had been embarrassed to say.
Now as a team though they gained the confidence to call him
out on what he’d been doing, a senior member of staff was deployed to the
basement next delivery day where he was informed that his actions were making
the girls uncomfortable and would he kindly refrain.
He was very embarrassed and sent the girls a massive apology
saying he hoped he would forgive him. He’d never meant to cause offence and
only played along to the reputation he had because everyone else did.
He got a massive wakeup call and never did it again,
behaving like a perfect gent till the day he retired and all because two young
girls had the courage to stand up and say no this is not ok.
And they forgave him because he had the decency to say;
Sorry
And sometimes that’s all anyone really needs.
GIRL FROM THE NECK DOWN COLUMN - MEDWAY MESSENGER
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