I'm going to recount my wonderful night last night. I'll leave out the screaming and nuttiness that led up to it.

My eleven year old went as an evil princess. Lots of makeup and velvet. I tied a pride flag around my neck for a cape and wore a homemade crown and carried a big stick with feathers and glow-bracelets on it. I was officially a king of Narnia, but I really just looked like some kind of gay primitive. We live in a yuppie neighborhood, but we went and trick-or-treated in a poorer neighborhood so we could relax a little. It was so fun.

On the way home, though, there was a situation that was scary for me. That's the story I want to tell. A bunch of boisterous drunk guys were talking to me on the train platform, and I was passing well. Then we got on the well-lit train, and they went and sat close to us and kept talking. They asked if my daughter was my sister or my niece. When I said she's my daughter, it was clear they didn't really believe me. These guys were pretty macho-acting and rough around the edges, obviously not city people, and they'd already mentioned being army guys from Alabama, so I really didn't feel safe outing myself.

So I whispered to Leah "call me dad, okay?" and kept myself carefully arrogant for the rest of their questions. They asked my age, and then didn't believe I was 30. They started honest to god quizzing me about pop culture from the eighties and early nineties. It was bizarre. I finally just turned it around and started telling the alpha guy that he looked pretty young himself, and asked him if he gets carded much.

Leah slipped up and called me "mom" at least once, but they didn't seem to notice. They were hyper-focused on the age thing. They luckily got distracted by another group of drunks (evening halloween train ftw), but I was so adrenalinized I made a beeline for the doors at our stop and left my feathery staff. Meh.

Idk. I'm leaving out so many details. I really don't know how to navigate situations like this. I feel it would be unfair to deny parentage, but then I don't want to get beat up by rednecks, either. Or even preached at. I need to get better at avoiding these kinds of discussions. Or maybe I'll always have trouble when I'm out with a preteen girl who doesn't look much younger than me. Maybe I just need facial hair, or a deeper voice.

Lol that could've been a nice tidy story, but now I'm daydreaming about all the ways I could've handled it.

There was once a woman who lived by herself in a quaint house in the country. Her husband had passed away about 5 years back and she was planning on moving soon. One day, while packing up some of her husbands things, she noticed that the temperature dropped really low. She walked down the hall to check the thermostat, but when she got there it showed no difference in temperature. She thought about it but figured that it must be broken. She decided that she would call someone the next day to fix it. When she passed the mirror on the wall on her way back she thought she saw a movement of shadows in the reflection. Then the temperature suddenly returned to normal and when she looked back at the mirror nothing was there. She shrugged and went back to packing.

A couple of days later the temperature dropped again. Again the woman went to the thermostat and again it showed no change. She remembered that she had forgotten to call someone to repair it. She promised herself that she would call after her show on T.V. that she had been watching. When she passed the mirror she again saw the movement of shadows. She stopped. In the reflection she saw a shadow, nothing but a shadow. Slightly translucent but visible. The shape was indescribable. It changed shape, like water flowing, about the size of a tall person. It stepped out from the wall behind the woman, but when she turned around to face it there was nothing there. Now she was scared. She began to tremble. Slowly she turned back to the mirror. The figure was still there, and closer. She screamed out "HEEEEELLPPP!!!" but no one came. Closer and closer IT came...

A few weeks later a friend of the woman's stopped by to say Hi. She knocked and knocked but there was no answer. The next day a police officer came out to investigate, but he found nothing but a few empty boxes and the TV on. It was put down as an unsolved case. The house was soon cleaned out and put out on the market for sale.

For many years the house was empty, what with all of the stories going around about it. But one day a small family consisting of a mother, father and daughter moved from the city into the house.

All was well until one day the temperature dropped in the house. The daughter went to her parents and asked them what happened. They said they didn't know and they went to the thermostat to see. It showed no change in temperature. They decided to call someone. The daughter went back to playing with her dolls in her room. Had she looked up into her mirror she would have seen a shadow peeking from behind the reflection of her bed. But just then her parents came in to tell her that someone was coming the next day to fix the thermostat and that she'll have to deal with it for a while, but when they finished saying this the temperature went back to normal. The parents said never mind.

Thank you Alexia!

I think you did great.  After all you got off the train without any problems and they only seemed to question your age not your gender.  With a bunch of drunk rednecks this story could have had a much worse ending.

I don't really have much to say but thanks for sharing. I enjoyed the story.