A Little Stumble, A Little Ridicule

It was a long day, I was exhausted and I was power-walking my way home.  All I wanted to do was just get off of my feet, lie down, get into my bed and simply relax.  So I'm walking really fast in order to get to that bed.

And I'm walking.  I'm walking for ten minutes.  Twenty minutes.  When I'm twenty-five minutes in and only a block away from home, my shoe catches a crack in the pavement and I stumble a bit.  No flailing around, no falling, just a little bump and a quick pull of the foot forward to compensate and catch my momentum.  Really, not a big deal.  Slightly embarrassing, since I was power-walking and dodging in and out of people, but really not a big deal at all.

Which is what I thought.  But apparently, some girls walking behind me disagreed.


They were younger than me, maybe my age at the most.  There was three of them, and they couldn't get over my little trip.  Immediately following my stumble, they started howling with laughter.  I turned my head to see if they were, in fact, laughing at me, and when we made eye contact, they laughed even harder and started pointing.  I turned back around and then heard comments like "What a retard!" and a very loudly shouted "FAIL!" right at me.  These young girls were actually making a scene and publicly ridiculing me because I hadn't lifted my foot high enough on one step.

And all I have to say to this is, really?  There's honestly nothing more entertaining than my little stumble?  I kind of wish I had been flailing or had fallen, just so I understood what they were laughing about.  Just so I could give them some sort of veritable credit for what they were doing.  But I honestly can't.  I've done it plenty of times before and have been a witness to it probably hundreds of other times.  Why did you girls feel the need to make sure everyone around was aware that I had stumbled?  I mean, I don't care--I stumbled, that's fact and all those people probably did witness it too.  I'm sure they were fully aware of my trip, as was I.  I know what happened and I didn't try to hide it or look around in shame or turn the next corner to avoid the stares of the people around me.  Go ahead, snicker a bit.  It's funny.  But really not that funny.  At all.  Honestly, that was just excessive.  It was a fucking trip on a piece of uneven pavement!  IT'S NORMAL.  It was just so bewildering to me that these girls got such a kick out of this!  It still is.

There's no final argument here, just a final question--why?  Why was that at all necessary or called for?  Why would anyone do something like that?  Had I done something to them before that made them hate me and want revenge, and me tripping on pavement was a sweet victory for them?  I'm so clueless.

That was a weird walk home.

"-ridicule." by amberskye-x212

Clumsy and clueless,
The A.S.S.