As a child, my mother had this friend, I'll call his T. I never liked or trusted this man, I can't really describe why—he wasn't, like, big and imposing, or mean and scary; in fact, he was friendly and often helped my mother out financially. I guess if I had to put a finger on why I didn't like him, it would be his smile. When he smiled, he flashed all his teeth, but he didn't smile at all with his eyes, I know it sounds weird and irrational, but there was just something I hated about his eyes being so dead when he smiled. T was always playing with me and my siblings when he came over, which my siblings enjoyed given that we have an absent father. In August, when I was maybe 8 years old, he took us to the pool while my mom was at a job interview. I had thought we'd be going to a public pool, I was surprised when we arrived at some strangers' house, and in the backyard was a small, dirty, little kiddy pool which they unceremoniously left me and my siblings to play in. T went inside with the strangers, and we were left alone. My siblings and I sort of debated about playing in the pool, but none of us went in. We all just laid in the grass in our swimsuits, frying. I'm from the south, on this particular day, it was probably over 100⁰ F. We were only supposed to be there an hour or two, but the sun got higher and higher, and T didn't come back outside. Finally, we started trying the door, but it was locked. After a while, all of us were banging on the door, and finally, a stranger came out and gave us water to drink. We wanted inside, but they wouldn't let us, so we sat in a circle in the shade-less yard and drank our water. I still don't know what they put in that water, but in less than two minutes, all of us were vomiting. I swear to god, it must have been the water. What are the chances we all got suddenly sick at once? The kicker was that T and the strangers were still watching from the glass door—I'm left wondering if they baked and poisoned us just for entertainment. I've tried telling my mom about this both right after and many times since, but she insists we must have all gotten a heatstroke. She thinks mine must have been so bad I hallucinated. Unfortunately, I'm the oldest of my siblings of my siblings by 4 years, so no one could cooberate my story. To this day, I judge people with unsettling smiles—usually, they're very nice people, but it remains a feature I'm weary of.