Nature saves not

This was a disturbing day. :-(

I went to a park to walk on some trails and brought a book. It was leisurely. Just, walk, rest, read, repeat. But at some point, when I went to use the restroom, I encountered an adult male authority figure with several children tagging along behind him.

 "They especially like little girls," he was saying.
A girl tagging on his heels: "Why do they especially like little girls?"
"'Cause they're easy pickin's. And they taste sweet."

The adult was walking quite fast. About 10 feet behind them, a little boy was running, trying to keep up with them, and criticizing the girl. "Why do you keep slapping his butt? I swear, she's like always slapping everybody's butt."

After they were gone, I thought, Hmmm. That was a little unsavory. I told myself, well, maybe the guy is just being really sarcastic. He's telling a story to warn the kids away from bears, or predators.

About 10 minutes later, after I was back from the restroom, mingled in with various other sounds, I began to hear a particular sound like that of a child screaming and crying. It was not very close and it was also not very loud. It sounded like it was coming from an upper part of the trail. I felt very suspicious. Maybe a kid fell and skinned a knee or something, but still. I started walking towards a place where I could connect to the upper trail. In order to do this, I had to walk away from the sounds. As they got fainter, I was getting disoriented. I could not find the place to connect to the upper part of the trail. Also, there was a lot equipment around and stuff, as if people were filming. Most of those people were not on the "set." The chairs were not occupied. One or two people were hanging out by the equipment. At this point, I could not even hear the screaming/crying anymore. I walked back towards where I had first heard the sounds, but they had stopped.

I think it was the last part that bothered me: "And they taste sweet." Food and drink tastes sweet. Honeysuckle flowers can taste sweet. If you want to say your lover tastes sweet, go right on ahead. But "little girls" that are "easy pickin's" "taste sweet?"

I don't like that guy.

A lot of people were in the park. It was a weekend. There were rangers guiding big groups, looking busy. I kept looking towards the upper trail on the way out but I didn't see them. I kind of wished I had gone with a small group of friends so I could get their "read" on the situation. But in a small group of friends, if we were busy talking to each other, would we notice?