I’m walking out of work last night at about 7:30 after a meeting with my manager, and a woman is walking about thirty yards ahead of me. It’s late, and it might seem odd that someone’s walking behind her at 7:30 when there’s no one else in the parking lot and only one other car in the area she’s walking to. I step on a leaf, and she kind of spins around and says, “So is it gonna rain or what?”

I’m looking at her and I know exactly what she’s thinking; that guy is going to kill me. I figure this because of the hint of nervousness in her voice and the absence of any meteorological condition that could have possibly made it seem like rain was approaching. I mean, I understand that it’s a different world if you’re a woman, but come up with something better than that to engage a possible attacker:

Woman walking to her car in downtown Boston: So, uhhhh . . . How ’bout them Yankees? (Psycho music plays, man pulls out knife . . .)

It’s like she was suggesting that abduction was an option I had by appearing nervous. It’s not like I’ve ever walked behind someone to my car and thought, “Hmmm, I wonder if this girl would be a good rape?”