The Eyes of a Sex Offender

I was driving along Kingsway Road last Friday morning en route for my second day at my new job, with nothing on my mind aside from the usual daily planning that has become a part of my morning routine, when something happened that I had definitely not planned for.

I changed lanes from the right when a person behind me presented me with the opportunity to do so.

Once I was safe in my new lane I turned on my hazard lights briefly in thanks to the person behind me, who, in turn flashed his lights at me in a gesture that I understood as an acknowledgement of my gratitude.

This was the point where things took a turn for the worse.

The person in the car behind me pulled into the lane opposite mine and drove up beside my car, the man in the car made a nodding gesture with his head which I ignored.

He then indicated for me to pull over.

Thinking the man had noticed something wrong with my car, I pulled over to the side of the road as soon as it was safe to do so.

The man in question had too pulled over but gave me no reason to believe that he was going to climb out of his vehicle and approach me with his problem.

So, while ignoring my GPS’s incessant instructions to “continue straight” and silencing my better judgement as I sometimes tend to do, I climbed out of my car and approached the man’s driver’s side window.

Completely unaware of the potentially emotionally scarring situation that was about to unfold and still convinced that something was wrong with my car, I said, “Good morning, is something the matter?”

The man said nothing, but looked down into his lap. I looked down to see what he was looking at with such interest and realised that something wasn’t quite right.

The man had freed his growing erection from the confines of its cotton prison and was waving it in my direction suggestively.

I quickly tore my gaze away from the man’s trouser snake at a complete loss for words, which admittedly does not happen to me very often.

By this point, the fiend had removed his darkly tinted glasses to reveal a pair of icy cold blue eyes that seemed to pierce my very soul and soflty asked while still fiddling with his lap, “Where are you headed?”

“T-to work,” I managed to stammer trying desperately to avoid his eyes.

He looked down into his lap again and whispered, in what I assumed to be an attempt at an ‘arousing voice’, “So are you interested?”

Now, I am the type of person who can take a lot of flack from people before losing my head and when I looked into those piercing eyes again I was suddenly filled with anger and revulsion.

“No, thank you,” I replied, letting the acid drip from the words coming out of my mouth.

Dissappointment filled his eyes but he recovered quickly, put a disgusting smile on his face and said, “Okay then, enjoy your day at work.”

I practically ran back to the safety of my car and sped back onto the road, the fiend followed suit in quick succession.

I couldn’t help but look in my rearview mirror to get one last look at the cretin, to see that he was driving behind me with a satisfied smile on his face and one hand on the steering wheel.

I silently hoped that his other hand was on his gear lever.

This was when I started to think, this was obviously not an isolated incident and it was clear that this man had done this type of thing before.

I couldn’t help but wonder how many times he had done this in the past? And what’s worse, how many people had accepted his offer?

After the anger had receded, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the guy.

How sad and desperate do you have to be to proposition young men for sexual favours on your way to work?

I also couldn’t help but wonder whether or not he had an unaware wife, and children at home.

I didn’t see a wedding band on his finger, but then again, his hands weren’t really the focus of my attention.

After the whole debacle and once I had pulled into my parking at work, I began to laugh, most likely a little hysterically.

At the centre of my hysterical laughter were thoughts like, “well at least he was well mannered” and “usually someone would have to buy me dinner before getting that kind of a reaction out of me”.

After I had composed myself and my hysterics had subsided, I felt a wave of gratitude crash over me.

The situation could have been so much worse than it actually was.

This man could have raped or killed me, or both.

And while I may laugh and joke about it in an attempt to make light of the situation, sexual crimes are indeed on the rise in South Africa and people need to be more observant of their surroundings and more careful in general.

So folks, in closing I would just like to repeat that people need to be more careful, this kind of thing can literally happen to anybody at any time.

Remain observant, because one day you might find yourself staring into the cold blue eyes of a sex offender.