A few years ago on a particularly warm summer’s afternoon I was out taking a walk when I bumped into somebody I knew. As I’m sure you’ll soon find out, this person wasn’t a friend of mine, but I did know him due to being in the same school as him. He was accompanied by a friend of his (I’d never seen them before) and the pair of them approached me from behind.

“Hey look it’s Adam Randall!” he said.

“Yes, it is!” I said, as I turned to face them.

“Who is he?” his friend said.

“Oh, just somebody I know from school…”

I smiled.

“…he’s really, really annoying.”

My smile dropped.

“He’s pretty weird-looking,” the other guy said.

“Well, there’s no need to be rude,” I hoped that I hadn’t been rude myself in saying that.

“Shut up,” said the one I knew. “What are you doing here anyway?”

“Oh, I was just strolling into town,” I replied.

“What do you think we should do with him?” asked the stranger.

“Well,” he replied, pulling out a knife, “we could always cut him a little?”

“Yeah, let’s do that!” an evil grin appeared on his face.

“Nah, I’d rather you didn’t…” I told them.

“We’ll take him somewhere where nobody can see so that we can do what we like,” said the person I knew, his friend seemed to think it was a good idea. “Let’s cut his shins first, and then move on from there!” he waved the knife threateningly around near my face.

“Yeah, it’s really painful being cut there,” said his friend, “Plus it’d be easier to cut other places after that, since he won’t be able to walk very well.”

“Come on then, move!” the one with the knife ordered.

“Well, I would, but your plan is already pretty bad. Right now we’re really close to town and there are several people around. If you did cut me at all, I’m sure you’d be quickly captured and punished!” I said, smiling.

“Yeah, that’s why we’re gonna take you somewhere else!” he replied angrily. “Somewhere where nobody will see.”

“But how?” I asked. “You can’t hurt me here because there’re so many people, so all you can do is threaten me with threats I know you won’t fulfil.”

“Fine,” he said hatefully. “We’ll leave you, but next time we see you, we’re gonna get you. See you then.”

“Goodbye!” I said cheerfully.

And so then he was gone. Funnily enough I’ve not seen him ever again since then, so he was never able to fulfil his promise. I supposed the saddest thing about it, was that in playgroup, he and I had been best friends.