All Because I Smiled...

I was about 12 or 13 at the time this happened, so pretty young. My mom had asked me to run across the street to the Sobeys (grocery store in Canada) and pick her up her favourite ice cream while she popped into the shower. This is normal for us, I'd go out and get it for her all the time.

It was legitimately RIGHT beside my house - I just had to turn down a very short sidewalk that led to an intersection and it was on the other side of that intersection. Took me maybe 3 minutes to walk there.

Anyway, when I got to the intersection to cross, there was a gentleman on the opposite side waiting for the walk sign to come on. He was tall, darker skin, and had a stone cold look on his face.

The walk light came on and we both started crossing. When we were about to pass each other, he made eye contact with me so I smiled at him. He didn't smile back but just stared at me the whole time he passed me. It made me super uneasy inside and I don't know why, but I felt compelled to turn around and see if he was still staring at me.

HE WAS. The entire time he crossed the road he stared back at me, not smiling. I quickly turned around and kept walking to the store. Didn't look back. I tried to put it out of MY mind and chalked it up to him being a douche canoe.

When I was finished and had walked back to the crosswalk/intersection, I noticed that same man was STILL there. He was sitting on a wooden planter box under a sign for the gas station that was right there. He was staring at me. I felt a chill run through me but in my naive 13 year old mind, maybe he was waiting for someone?

I felt uncomfortable enough to not cross the section that would lead me to him. I would still need to cross to that side, but I was going to try to go around it. Sorry if I'm not explaining this right..lol.

Anyway, when he noticed this, he immediately got up and waited for the walk sign to turn on so he could cross and get to the other side where I would be. Luckily, I'm a fast walker, so I got to the other side first AND decided to jaywalk instead of waiting for the next walk sign.

He didn't speed up but he ended up right behind me on that short little sidewalk that led to my house, give or take a few feet. I was EXTREMELY uncomfortable at this point and kind of scared. Here was this big dark sinister unfriendly looking man who had seemingly been waiting for me, and now he was right behind me.

The way that my street is set up is that when you turn on to it, there are 3 visitor parking spots on each side. I turned on to my street and ducked behind a car. I wasn't even sure why really, I mean, I didn't for sure know he was following me. I just knew I felt uneasy.

He walked by my street very slowly but never turned his gaze. When he was about to be completely out of sight, I got up and started walking down to my house thinking I was in the clear and that was just me being silly (I'm about the 4th or 5th house in so it was close!).

Boy, was I wrong. He must have realized he couldn't see me anywhere else on the street so the only logical explanation was that I had turned already - so he walked BACK. He saw me just as I was getting to my house and then turned down my street. At this point, I was terrified and I didn't care if it was in my head and I looked silly. I ran. I ran up the steps to the front door of my house - tears racing down my face. I tried to open the door and it was locked. My heart dropped. I didn't bring my key and I had locked the door because I didn't want to leave it unlocked while my mom was showering - I was worried someone would hurt her while I was out.

I started pounding on the door. Just straight screaming for my mom. I could barely see my door anymore as my eyes were so cloudy with tears. I turned around to check on the man and he was COMING UP MY DRIVEWAY. I screamed the loudest, blood-curdling scream I could muster and at that point - my mom opened the door.

I pushed her inside and slammed the door and locked it. Twice. I was in hysterics and ran to the window to look for the man - who I could now see taking off down the street.

I told my mom what happened and she consoled me. She was supposed to work an overnight that night, but did not want to leave me alone after that (even though it was just down the street).

Nothing really came from it. My mom knew I was spooked and paid special attention to me for the next little while and I always, always carry a key with me now lol.

Looking back though, I didn't learn my lesson. I still smile at strangers. But to that creepy guy who followed me home, lets not meet again.