Chilling Memory

I have this written in one of my notebooks somewhere, with the accurate dates, and when I find the notes, I'll check the dates, etc., but I think it's pretty clear in my memory:
It was a hot summer vacation day in 1988, and all the big kids were involved in their own activities, leaving Danny and Jimmy, who were 11 and 10, both little kids for their ages. Danny, influenced by his brother and sister's interests, wanted to see the U2 movie, "Rattle and Hum," and though Jimmy was a little young to be interested in it yet, the 3 of us went to the Clifton Park theater, probably around noon. It was vacation time, and as often was the case in Clifton Park, the theater was not busy at all; as a matter of fact we were the only 3 people at that showing. I sat near the back of the theater in the center section, and Danny and Jimmy sat further down toward the screen. I remember that about 20-30 minutes into the movie, a man came in by himself and sat in the left section, about midway toward the screen. Danny was involved in the movie, Jimmy got a little bored and was absently rolling a quarter down the center aisle, very quietly, not bothering anyone, as he was away from the only other person who'd just come into the theater. I closed my eyes to listen to the music; there wasn't really a plot, just the filming of U-2's tour. When I looked up, the man who had entered was now seated just behind Danny and Jimmy. I guess I thought he must have wanted a center seat, but he was right behind the boys. Danny must have felt uncomfortable because he, with Jimmy, changed their seat, and after a short time, the man was right behind their seat again. This time, alarm bells went off and the boys came up to where I was seated, and commented on the man. We were in Clifton Park where we'd gone for years and felt very comfortable and safe, and I remember whispering to them that they'd encountered their first pervert. I told them not to go to the bathroom, though I'm sure my kids had done so before, and I said that instead of eating at the McDonld's that was then in the mall, we'd wait and go to the one in Mechanicville, (which we did.) So far , so good. But then, I did something, in retrospect, probably stupid and potentially disastrous. After the show, the man exited the way he'd come in--to the left. I told the boys to stay where they were, seated in the back of the theater, and I went out the exit the man had used. BUT as I was in the exit, the man had not left, but was standing about half way in the exit, with his back to the side wall, as if waiting for someone, but there had been no one else in there! I had only seen the back of his head, so I took a good look, and came very close to asking him why he was standing there, but I didn't. He seemed neither old nor young, not tall, not short, dressed in the kind of green Docker-style pants and short-sleeve button shirt that a lot of teacher-types wore in the summer. I quickly circled back into the theater--Danny was mad at me because I'd left them. I guess his instincts were stronger than mine had been. On the way out, Danny saw the man go into the bathroom, and we hurried to my car, kind of shaken, but also joking about it. Up to then, I knew that there were perverts who exposed themselves in movie theaters, and that's what we were thinking. A short time later, a man tried to grab a young girl off the street in Pittsfield, in broad daylight. She screamed, shrugged herself out of her backpack, which he'd grabbed. He was caught and in his truck were ropes and duct tape. His picture was in the papers---I recognized him as the man in the theater, LEWIS LENT. He had been studying at the Clifton Park Bible School, located in an old church across from the mall. Even eerier,one of Danny's classmates's fanily had attended that same church, knew Lewis Lent as a helpful church-goer. He had been to their Stillwater home many times, and had played games with the boy's younger sisters. Except for the boy's telling Danny, though, I don't think the family ever revealed it; they must have been terrified when they found out. Lewis Lent was accused of 2 more separate child murders, a boy, Jimmy Bernardo,whose body was found hanging from a tree, and a girl, a minister's daughter, whose body was never found. Both were pulled off the bikes they were riding. Lent was never convicted of the girl's death, but I understand Lent is presently serving a life term for the Bernardo murder. If you google, you can read more about his propensity to live in churches as a custodian, and to frequent movie theaters. Whenever I think that things are not going well, I am reminded of this and our near escape from what almost certainly was a horrible tragedy.