Macks; The Stalker

The sun was beaming down that hot August day, I was sweating away in my t-shirt and jean shorts as I was helping an elderly lady load up her car with boxes of the early harvest of peaches that we had just got into the shop. Working at Macks fruit stand gave me these daily workouts with whatever I had to carry or lift. At that moment in the blazing sun heat I wasn't paying attention as an older man stood by my side. He was a Hispanic man holding a single red rose as he blocked my path between the pallets of peaches displayed in fruit baskets. I wiped my sweaty forehead pushing up my eye glasses just then as he stood there I was suddenly noticing this guy was talking to me. "Wait. What did he just say?" I asked myself looking at the man with that rose in his hand. He handed it to me but I backed up as I realized he was so intense. He had been there earlier that morning and now that he was back made me worry as to why he was handing me a rose. He said again loudly "Will you marry me?" I let out a half laugh and step back from him again. He was moving in on me so strongly and pushing that rose in my face. "YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!"  my head screamed with alarm. At first I thought he was joking but the look on his face said it wasn't a joke. "Holy crap!"  was my last thought as I scrambled away from him shaking my head "NO" I even jumped over a whole pallet of peaches because he had me blocked, I said clearly at him "NO! Oh No no no no sorry I am NOT getting married ....EVER." I was looking around for the owner Larry or anyone who was working with me. The guy came at me with that red rose still flying towards my sweaty face, He said "YOU not marry? That is crazy, you should marry me! Will you marry me?" I finally found my feet again moving around backwards starring at this guy uncomfortably. I said straight forward again keeping my eye contact with him so he knew I was not in doubt of my answer. "NOPE, SORRY, I'M NEVER MARRYING." He kept at it and it was hard to not panic as I felt all alone until I made it back into the shop flagging down the owner's wife Debbie. She had been talking to my co-worker Tony as I alarmingly asked her to help me loose this stalker guy who was asking me to marry him over and over again! Debbie moved forward on the crazy guy without hestination. Tony turned to me asking if I knew this guy and I burst out laughing shaking my head "I have NEVER seen him until today and now I can't go back out there until he is gone!" Debbie was great in knowing what to do! She immediately started shaking her hands at this man with that rose still in his hand. Debbie got him to leave with whatever she said. Though over the next few months when he came into the store I had to hide, I loved how Debbie would come running in warning me he was here again and I would spring into hiding. That stalker guy was unlike any I had ever seen before, if he caught me by surprise instead of saying "Hello, how are you?" like normal people he would instead blur out "Please Marry me!" and I would stay close to the phone if I was running the store all alone when he came in again, I learned to say angrily "NO! NO! NO!" holding my ground and glaring him down. The fact he kept coming back just bewildered me! When my new friend/co-worker Tony said to me that I shouldn't put up with that kind of harassment. I asked him how could I deal with it? He said with a confident smile "You need to know how NOT to be so nice with such creeps." I realized next time when faced with this stalker I never once cracked a smile nor did I even answer his questions. It actually worked at how he got the cold shoulder not just my frustrated words, he simply stopped carrying around that rose. And what amazed me the most was that I learned how I had the power to protect myself. Of course it took some practice in the mirror to make my scary bitch face:-D