Author notes

The Note Page Three

Genejoke

on April 20, 2021

Original notes

The main reason for revisiting this idea after so many years was after an encounter I had a few months back. I took my daughter to the park and she was playing on the swings and such. We were the only ones there and I sat on a bench at the edge of the enclosed play area. While she was playing a guy in his 40s or 50s came up and made conversation. He seemed sad and lonely and told me how he had recently found his friends body. He pondered why his friend had taken his life. It was a fairly touching encounter, except for his furtive glances at my daughter. It may have been innocent enough but something about him gave me cause for concern. Anyway, that encounter inspired this take on the story. The hardest part was writing this page. I knew I wanted guilt to be the motivation for the suicide and the idea of it being about a paedophile seemed powerful, yet writing from that perspective made me feel very uncomfortable. As a result I kept it vague and more about his desires rather than any sexual acts.