This happened to me back in late November of 2024 when I was 18.

I was at the Walden Gallery of Mall in Buffalo, just doing some early Christmas

shopping for my family. I liked to get my Christmas shopping over with. I also like going

to the mall during Christmas time because of the decorations and general vibe. Something

about shopping when that Christmas feeling is in the air makes it more enjoyable to me. I had like three

bags with me already. I stopped in Victoria's Secret, Zara and Sephora. I got my brother and dad

something from Zara and my sister and mom's stuff from Sephora. I also got myself a bunch of stuff.

I'd already been in the mall for hours, and I wanted to just sit and collect

myself. I sat on one of the benches not far from the tall tree that the mall puts up every year.

There were still people in the mall, but it was closing soon, so there were less and less with

each passing minute. A man came and sat down next to me. He cracked a joke at first, which I laughed at. He

seemed like this innocent older guy, like 62 or something. He reminded me, honestly, of a skinny

Santa Claus ironically. We talked for a couple of minutes. The things he said that mainly stuck out

to me were him talking about how he'd been coming to this mall since it opened and how he was scared it was going to shut down.

He said I looked like his daughter and then showed me a picture of her on his phone.

I didn't see a resemblance at all, to be honest.

In fact, the girl looked absolutely nothing like me, or him for that matter.

It was also a picture of a girl who looked like she was 18.

He looked like he could have been her grandfather, honestly.

Eventually, I felt it was time to leave, so I slightly awkwardly got up and said goodbye and walked away.

I didn't look back to see if he was watching me.

I liked to avoid awkwardness in every way.

...