I've often heard that when a traumatic event happens to a child, a big factor involved is how the adults respond.

Clearly you did the right thing, a big responsibility for a 5-6 year old.

However adults don't want to admit what happened. No one wants to believe something dangerous actually happened. Their denial became them gas-lighting you. You did the right thing, good job. As a 6 year old, you handled the situation better than the teenager Christy, or even her parents. That happens, and it placed an emotional burden onto you that you are still carrying. You can't control what other people do, you can't control what Christie's parents did, or the fact that man is out there in his car. You did everything you could, and you did what was right, and have to let the rest go. The safety of the entire world is not an acceptable burden to place on a 6 year old. You took good care of yourself and that's the entirety of your responsibility. These situations never taught you what to do if an adult doesn't listen. But the truth is they often don't, and that's a scary thing to have happen, when you've learned to run to adults for help from adults, and then they fall through. That happens to children, and it's awful. It's clear that messed with your sense of safety. It's not your fault the adults present didn't follow through with their end of listening and calling 911 because they were in denial. It's not your fault, it is theirs and their own prejudice.

Great story, we all have these memories of trauma, where adults fell through when we were told to trust them.