I never told anyone about my friend’s dad

This is only brief, but scared me for a long long time. I used to live in a very isolated rural town with a population of approx 120 people, and as expected I knew everyone there. My best friend and I were your typical benign teenage delinquents, and our favourite game at the time was an activity we referred to as “Dead Fred”. We would stuff a full length wetsuit with newspaper, dress it in long sleeves and jeans and leave it lying in the middle of our street at night-time. Meanwhile, we’d be hiding in the bushes laughing and musing on the varied reactions of those who came across the scene.

One night, a car seemingly didn’t even notice Dead Fred and drove right over the top of him at speed. The driver screeched to a stop about 50 meters away and got out of the car. I recognised him, it was a close friend’s dad, a recently retired accountant who I knew well and had been my rugby coach for the last few seasons. He looked unstable, possibly shaken but likely drunk (drink driving was quite common in such a small country town). Without much hesitation, he pulled a rifle from the boot of his car (once again, quite a common thing to have in a small country town), fired several shots at the “corpse” from afar and drove away.

My friend and I kept this to ourselves, and as far as I know we are the only two who know. The driver remained a close family friend, continued to coach me in rugby and has since had grandchildren. I still see him when I go home for holidays. As far as I know, he never fessed up to the incident, and carried on his life for the next 23 years, and in to the present day, as if nothing ever happened.

The little girls room

When I was about 6/7, I used to take swimming lessons in a local pool after finishing school twice a week on Wednesday and Fridays. On Fridays mum would take me into McDonalds to get a milkshake as a treat afterwards. I’d sit and drink my shake, then we’d head home, no problems. This day was different.. I’d finished my shake and wanted the toilet before we left. So in I went, into the ladies on my own as I usually did. I noticed one cubicle was locked and thought nothing of it, went in the second, did my thing, flushed and noticed that the person in the other cubicle was unlocking the door too. I hadn’t heard them flush.

I turned around and it was a man. Old, disgusting and tall. Why was he there? I innocently said “this is for ladies only, mister” and he said “why do you think I’m in here, little girl? It’s music to my ears. Where is your mummy?” He took a few strands of my hair and twirled them between his grim fingers and reached a hand to grab me by the shoulder. I shook out of his grip and ran fast as I could back to mum, crying. I told her what happened. She told an attendant but by the time they checked he’d managed to slip out unnoticed and into the busy street.

Be careful when driving alone

My dad was driving alone at night down a small country road with trees on both side. As he’s driving he barely notices something kind of small hanging up ahead. He slammed on the brakes and was able to slow down enough for the object to dink on the windshield. He freaked out and gunned it out of there.

Someone had hung a heavy object from a tree branch so that it would smash the windshield of someone driving through and force them to pull over. At best it was an irresponsible and dangerous prank, but its likely that someone planned on robbing/killing/kidnapping etc…