Reconnect; Stalker or Paranoia?
Hello again, friends, both real and imagined. It's now been 57 days, according to livejournal's count. That's the last time I last poured forth in a torrent of self-important longwinded verbiage. It seems time now to do the same.
About a week ago, E_ and I had a most unsettling experience as we lay down our heads for the night. Hearing noise coming from outside our three bay windows- the head of our bed faces the house next door, our landlord's, throughwhich a path runs from the parking lot in the back to the street in front- we cracked the blinds to find what appeared to be a young man staring back at us. Instantly, he was off and running toward the street; within seconds, headlights went on and a car zoomed down the street.
Now, the last week has felt a little less safe at nights. I have tried to pass it off as paranoia or just an overreaction- generally, I find Americans to be especially protective about locking doors, houses, and people away- but the feeling was hard to shake that we had found ourselves the target of a peeping tom.
Now I feel less confident about letting it go. Last night, again around 11:00 p.m. we again heard rustling outside the windows. After a fruitless investigation into the stone-cold silence of night, I finally heard conversation fragments coming from next door (we live in an old Victorian house with five adjoining units, all of which have paper thin walls). First, a women's voice, nervous and guarded- 'what are you doing here', followed by a man's, 'I tried calling you...' This was shortly followed by hushed voices, unintelligible to me; a few minutes later, I heard hurried footsteps pass underneath our now barely cracked window.
I'm feeling both unsettled and yet partly resolved about what is going on. My best guess is that last night's apparently undesired visitor to our next door neighbor was the same person from last week. Perhaps he was staring at the wrong person then (us?), or just got scared upon us spotting him and ran off.
What really concerns me is that the first day E_ and I moved in to our new place we met a seemingly very cheerful man who introduced himself as 'the ex-boyfriend', the same of the woman who was sought after last night. He told us to 'keep an eye on her,' as she was disturbed mentally and he was worried about her health. What disturbs me is that E_ immediately afterwards told me that this is classic stalker behavior that she encountered while working at a battered women's clinic.
I wish I had nonchalantly walked outside at the point I heard footsteps retreat from our neighbor's house, but I was too chickenshit to do so. I think it would put MY mind at ease if I could tie these three incidents together, but it still would worry me having this creepy fuck coming to stare at and harass at our neighbor several times a week.
To all of you, please keep this knowledge between you, livejournal and me. I'm not sure how E_ would be with you knowing, though I imagine she wouldn't be too thrilled. Personally, I selfishly needed to put this out there as a form of trying and dealing with it. In a way, I'm at a loss at what to do. I don't want this person to rule our night lives, especially if it doesn't involve me, but at the same time, it is quite disturbing that our neighbor (who we actually have yet to meet) is potentially dealing with a frequent stalking ex-boyfriend.
About a week ago, E_ and I had a most unsettling experience as we lay down our heads for the night. Hearing noise coming from outside our three bay windows- the head of our bed faces the house next door, our landlord's, throughwhich a path runs from the parking lot in the back to the street in front- we cracked the blinds to find what appeared to be a young man staring back at us. Instantly, he was off and running toward the street; within seconds, headlights went on and a car zoomed down the street.
Now, the last week has felt a little less safe at nights. I have tried to pass it off as paranoia or just an overreaction- generally, I find Americans to be especially protective about locking doors, houses, and people away- but the feeling was hard to shake that we had found ourselves the target of a peeping tom.
Now I feel less confident about letting it go. Last night, again around 11:00 p.m. we again heard rustling outside the windows. After a fruitless investigation into the stone-cold silence of night, I finally heard conversation fragments coming from next door (we live in an old Victorian house with five adjoining units, all of which have paper thin walls). First, a women's voice, nervous and guarded- 'what are you doing here', followed by a man's, 'I tried calling you...' This was shortly followed by hushed voices, unintelligible to me; a few minutes later, I heard hurried footsteps pass underneath our now barely cracked window.
I'm feeling both unsettled and yet partly resolved about what is going on. My best guess is that last night's apparently undesired visitor to our next door neighbor was the same person from last week. Perhaps he was staring at the wrong person then (us?), or just got scared upon us spotting him and ran off.
What really concerns me is that the first day E_ and I moved in to our new place we met a seemingly very cheerful man who introduced himself as 'the ex-boyfriend', the same of the woman who was sought after last night. He told us to 'keep an eye on her,' as she was disturbed mentally and he was worried about her health. What disturbs me is that E_ immediately afterwards told me that this is classic stalker behavior that she encountered while working at a battered women's clinic.
I wish I had nonchalantly walked outside at the point I heard footsteps retreat from our neighbor's house, but I was too chickenshit to do so. I think it would put MY mind at ease if I could tie these three incidents together, but it still would worry me having this creepy fuck coming to stare at and harass at our neighbor several times a week.
To all of you, please keep this knowledge between you, livejournal and me. I'm not sure how E_ would be with you knowing, though I imagine she wouldn't be too thrilled. Personally, I selfishly needed to put this out there as a form of trying and dealing with it. In a way, I'm at a loss at what to do. I don't want this person to rule our night lives, especially if it doesn't involve me, but at the same time, it is quite disturbing that our neighbor (who we actually have yet to meet) is potentially dealing with a frequent stalking ex-boyfriend.