The Stakeout

We were insane. That's the only excuse for our stupidity.

The beginning of our senior year, my friend, Jessica, had this freaky stalker. It started in September, if I remember correctly. I know it was still warm out because the bedroom windows were open in the evenings to help alleviate the vast humidity that is CT in Indian Summer.

It started with a drive-by one weekend, some freakazoid screaming Jessica's name out his car window late at night as he zoomed past her house. A friend playing a joke? We had no clue.

This repeated for a few weekends after, always on a Friday or Saturday night or the night before a holiday/vacation day from school. This led us to believe it was possibly someone home from college, mostly because we didn't know anyone with a white sports car (Jess had managed to see the car zoom away one night after the yelling).

She was getting pretty sick of it, so we devised a plan. A stakeout. We were going to find out who this idiot was.

So, we planned a sleepover one weekend at her house. Around 10pm or so, we ventured out into her front yard and plopped ourselves between the two humongous pine trees in her front yard, armed with flashlights and snacks. We sat there for over two hours, waiting for this moron to drive by, hoping we'd get a glimpse of him or at least his license plate.

Two teenaged girls sitting in the dark in the middle of the night with nothing but a flashlight. There's no two ways about it... we were fucking nuts.

Finally, around 12:30am, we decided to go back inside. He just wasn't coming. Damn it all.

We got into our PJs, turned out the lights, and pulled our covers back. As we were each getting into our respective beds (mine was a makeshift one on the floor), a blood-curdling scream pierced the otherwise calm night air... "Jessssssss-ssssssiiieeeee!" Both of us froze in the dark, terrified and paralzyed with fear. Neither of us even made it to the window to take a look; neither of us could even move until we could no longer hear his car.

When it was over, we both agreed that we were glad we HADN'T been outside when he drove by.

Either later that weekend or the next, he took it to the next level and actually got OUT of his car. He and a friend (possibly two) approached her house and actually started talking to her outside her window, singing profane lyrics made on the fly. She was scared, of course, but she was also armed... with a tape recorder. She had their voices on tape.

She brought the tape into school Monday morning and played it for a few people, hoping someone would recognize one of the voices. One friend found the voices familiar. I remember that much.

We never did find out exactly who it was (although we had our suspicions after the tape). Soon after that, the stalking stopped. Maybe he got bored. Maybe he heard about the recording. Maybe he didn't come back from college for a couple of months and just lost interest. I don't think we'll ever find out.