Theresa Lewis

Many years ago when my husband left me, I lived in a rented apartment in a rough neighbourhood. It was all I could afford at the time. I had lost my job and I was very sick.

 

Back then, it was the worst time in my life. When I was with my husband, I had always felt safe…safe from all the boogeymen in life. When I was on my own, times were very tough for me. I was promised a certain amount of money a month to live on by my soon to be ex-husband, but he never even gave me half of what he said he would.

 

Many times, I didn’t even have enough money to eat on a daily basis. To make ends meet, I would only eat every second day, but that was making me sicker. I had to find a way to survive and to regain my health.

 

In order to stretch my dollar further, I made soups every week so I could have it for lunch. For supper, I would make a chicken or a beef stew. That way, I could eat twice every day.

 

On one venture to the grocery store at the top of my street, I feared that I was being followed by a young man. I can’t begin to put into words how scared I was. I made a bee-line into the store and watched through the grocery store window until he was out of sight.

 

Hah! Just paranoid, I thought. Never having lived alone before, I was totally paranoid about everything. I had gone from my parents’ home to my husband’s home without ever having lived on my own in my life. Yet, now, here I was, thrust out into the jungle of life where the greatest emotions I had were fear, loneliness and confusion. I tried my best to be ever vigilant.

 

One day, to my shock and surprise, the young man that I had suspected of following me on a few occasions, appeared at my apartment door. I was terrified. He knocked and knocked, but I wouldn’t open my door to him. As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t open my door to anyone I didn’t know. Inside my apartment, I sat as quiet as a mouse. My heart was beating so loudly from fear that it was pounding in my ears. I was afraid that the stranger would be able to hear it too.

 

About a month earlier, I had read in our local newspaper that there was a serial rapist somewhere in our vicinity so I didn’t want to take any chances. He had already raped and beat up numerous women. I didn’t know if this was the same man, or not, but I didn’t know him and he had no business being at my door.

 

Whenever I had to go out, I would first look out the window to make sure the street was clear then peer out through the peephole in my apartment door to make sure there was no one lurking in the corridor.

 

Every day, I went through the same routine and tried to stay safe. As careful as I was, every so often, the same young man would suddenly appear on my street and appear to be following me even though he was on the other side of the street. I guess you could say that it was a gut feeling of unease whenever I noticed him. I tried to go about my business and not focus on him even though I was acutely aware of his every move.

 

One cold winter’s night in January, I went out to supper with my brother then we went back to his place for a while to chat. It was just after midnight when I finally decided to leave. Suddenly, a feeling of impending doom crept over me and I was afraid to go home alone that night. My brother said he would see me home then take a bus back to his place.

 

Just as I was parking the car by the curb across the street from my apartment building, I noticed a man coming down the other side of the street towards the apartment building. We stayed in the car and waited in hopes that he would pass by and keep going. As he got closer, I noticed that he resembled the same young man that I had suspected of following me on a few occasions. I told my brother. For some reason, the young man didn’t seem to notice us sitting in the car.

 

For the longest time, the young man kept pacing back and forth in front of my apartment building as he looked furtively around the immediate area. He really looked suspicious to me. Finally, he went up to a basement window of our building, removed the window screen, opened the window and disappeared inside that unit.

 

My brother and I waited in the car a good ten minutes more then we got out and he walked me inside my unit. I immediately called the police and reported what I had seen.

 

Within minutes, the police were at my door. When I gave them a description of the young man that I had seen enter the basement apartment and told them that he appeared to be following me for weeks and had even knocked at my door, they said I was mighty lucky because the description I had just given them matched the description of the serial rapist. I felt my knees buckle under me.

 

One officer stayed with me and called in for backup. When the other police car arrived with two more officers, they went down to the basement apartment and arrested the man. Apparently, his wife took sleeping pills every night so she never knew that her husband was sneaking out in the darkness of night to rape and beat up other women. The man thought he had the perfect alibi because he and his wife went to bed together and woke up in the morning beside each other. She was none the wiser until that night.

 

It was just my good and bad luck to have been living in a building with a serial rapist downstairs. Even though the wanted man had been caught, I never let my guard down for a single moment.

 

The End