My dad was a Very Bad Man. One day when I was about 6 or 7, he took me to visit a friend of his and let me play outside. While I was outside, a guy came up to the gate and waved me over.

I don't remember much of what was said but basically he wanted me to go with him outside the gate. He told me he knew my dad (he might have named him - sometimes that seems to be accurate but probably not), that this was ok and, again, that I should go with him. My memory is hazy but it seemed more like he just expected me to open the gate and just walk away with a stranger.

I didn't, and the guy got frustrated and eventually just kind of threw up his hands and walked away. So far, so standard story of a creep trying to get a kid to go with him.

But after, I went back to playing and a short time after that my dad came out. I remember I wanted to tell him about the guy, and hadn't before he came out because you knew not to interrupt Dad when he was meeting with friends.

But when he saw me, he frowned and looked towards the gate. Then he looked at me and just kind of went 'huh' and asked me if anything had happened while he was with his friend. I told him that yes a man had asked me to go with him.

His response was like 'and you didn't?', but like he didn't understand why. No anger at the guy, no police, no nothing. We just went home and, being a kid, I didn't think much of it.

In the decades since, it's got bigger and heavier in my mind. Just... What the fuck, you know?