I’m not young looking. I may look young for my age (though I suspect that’s just what people tell me because they want something) but I certainly could not be mistaken for someone in their twenties.

I don’t drive a fancy car. My vehicle is an unwashed station wagon from the 1990’s- when it chooses to run.

I know the economic climate is chilly- the city where I live has the highest unemployment in the country, smart people have left, and those that have remained are looking more feral all the time.

Co-workers used to tease me that I had some sort of invisibility shield- whenever there was extra work, or trouble, or anything I didn’t like, I would sort of not be present even though I was. Kind of a deflector shield. I like to be quiet, unnoticed and unrecognizable.

Here’s where things come together- in the last two weeks I have been “confronted” thrice by young men. I keep wondering why? Why me? Why now? What...