Angel Woman Said No

One day an angel-woman showed up just in time to intervene.

I had been at a loss when the unwanted man appeared at my job and followed me to my car.

Afterward, when things were safe, she and I compared perspectives of the incident.

It was surprising to discover that our accounts were slightly different. 

She had not only been passing by and stopped, as I had thought. She had passed by, then heard the banter and actually returned to the scene to see what was going on. She had heard me saying that I needed to go. I was asking him to let me go. Pleading, in fact.

He was saying that he couldn’t let me go and informed me about things that he said I needed to change, that I needed to accept. I only got so far as to sit in the driver's seat but he was loitering.

Looming over me and my open door. 

The angel-woman and I both remembered that she had arrived and asked me if everything was okay. I had responded no. We both remembered that I described how I just wanted the conversation to end but that he wouldn’t let me go. 

She had told him that he should probably let me go.

He hesitated—unsure, it seemed.

She commanded him to go.

So he did. 

What I had unconsciously blocked from my memory in the midst of adrenaline was that the angel-woman had clearly and systematically directed me to get in my car, close my door, and drive away. She had given me permission to leave the intruder, to interrupt the conversation he was forcing me to have, and to put my “no” into action. 

I had been so numb, desensitized, and nearly brainwashed by his pressure that I needed to be told by someone else how to take care of myself, how to follow through and protect myself.

It felt so good to get away, but I didn’t know yet how to make such magic on my own.

At that point, I still relied on angels and their uncanny power to transform words into actions.