Ready Kids › Out and About › Badge 1 › Lesson 1.3
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The person behind you
Test whether somebody is following you, and know where to go if they are.
1Look
A pavement, and somebody on it behind you
Over the shoulder
A residential street in the afternoon. A kid walking. Thirty metres back, an adult walking the same way, hands in pockets, looking at nothing in particular.
Most people walking behind you are just walking behind you. They live along here too. This lesson is how you tell the difference, calmly.
2The idea
You do not have to guess. You can test.
Cross the road, then keep walking at the same pace. If they stay on their side, you have your answer and it cost you nothing. If they cross too, cross back. Somebody who crosses twice to stay behind you is following you.
Now you know something, and you found it out without running, without looking scared, and without saying a word. Knowing is better than wondering.
3The idea
If they cross twice, this is what you do
Go into the nearest place with people and staff. A shop, a chemist, a cafe, a library, a school office, a bus with a driver on it.
Say to the person at the counter: somebody is following me and I need to ring my mum.
Stay inside until a parent comes or the staff say it is clear.
Not home. Home shows them where you live, and a front door takes longer to open than you think. And never a cut-through or an empty path. Those take you somewhere with nobody in it, which is exactly where somebody following you would like you to go.
4The idea
Four streets from home, with a chemist on the corner
Say it is you, on the street in the picture. You cross. He crosses. You cross back. He crosses back. That is twice, so you stop wondering. The chemist is thirty metres ahead, lit up, two people inside. Home is four streets away.
You walk into the chemist, not fast, and say the sentence to the woman at the counter. She rings your mum. The person outside now has an audience, and people who follow kids do not want one. Your dial was on Twitchy the whole time. That is fine. Twitchy did its job.
5Decide
They have crossed twice. You are four streets from home. Where do you go?
Pick one to carry on.
6Your turn
Three routes, one afternoon
Branching walk
The street from the picture, as a map. At each corner you choose: cross, keep going, or go in somewhere. Three routes end well. Three do not, and the map shows you why.
There is more than one right route. There is no right route that ends at your own front door.
7Find them
Which of these are places you would go into?
Tap the ones that count.
Find all 4.
8Say it
What you say when you get inside
Say this out loud, in your normal voice
“Somebody is following me and I need to ring my mum”
It is not dramatic. It is a sentence you say to the person at the till, and then they take over.
9Do it
Before you leave this page
Name the three closest places on your route that have adults in them whose job is to be there. A shop, a cafe, a library, a school office. Say them to a parent in the order you would reach them walking home.
Tick it when you have done it.
Lesson done.
Cross the road. If they cross too, go where there are people and staff. Not home.
Next lesson: The car that stops