Hate Your Neighbor
“When I was about five years old, my mom and I lived in this duplex that was off the main road and in a wooded area. We lived on one side and on the other was a woman and her son. He was studying to be a teacher. My mother had me young, so she was about 25 and the guy in the other unit was in his early 20s. He would often come by to talk to my mom.
My mother said he would ask a lot of questions about me. He once even asked if he could take me for a walk in the woods. My mother declined. One night, while I was sleeping over at my grandma’s house, my mom came home from work late at night. When she got into her room, she made a chilling discovery. She a pair of feet wearing socks sticking out from the end of her bed.
She grabbed her bedside lamp and was about to hit the intruder with it when all of a sudden he identified himself as that guy from the other unit. He couldn’t explain why he was in our apartment, nor why he was naked and only wearing socks. But he begged my mother to not tell his mother about the incident. My mother, of course, called the authorities.
She ended up going to court and making a victim impact statement against this guy, because she was terrified that he would become a teacher and be around children. We ended up moving immediately, because my mom couldn’t stay another night in that house. She is very thankful that I was out of the house that night, because for all we know he could have been trying to target me.”