9 Notes | Teen Ink

9 Notes

August 18, 2014
By Carly_Elizabeth PLATINUM, othello, Washington
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Carly_Elizabeth PLATINUM, Othello, Washington
39 articles 0 photos 131 comments

Favorite Quote:
"And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it."
Roald Dahl


Author's note: This is not true. I am not being stalked, I promise haha. This is just a story I thought up of while I was guarding.

I'm a lifeguard, so I'm pretty good at spacing off while still paying attention to detail. For example, I'll be thinking about what I'm going to make for dinner when I finally get home, but that kid running on the deck that I see in the corner of my eye, he got a whistle from me and a warning. Same with everything else that happens in and around the pool. It's kind of a requirement that lifeguards learn to basically doze off but be ready to jump in or yell at the kid for pushing that little girl in the pool.

So it's safe to say I'm a pretty observant person. I mean not to toot my own horn or anything.

Something I like to do while I'm watching people is study them. It helps pass the time to memorize everyone's face whether it be in the deep end or the lazy river. I like to try and notice how often they come to the pool and who they're usually with. Maybe even figure out they're habits and standard things they do at the pool (besides just swimming of course).

Don't judge, it gets really boring sitting up on that guard stand for 6 hours.

Now that we've established that I'm basically a stalker, I'll explain why I'm telling you this.

I've been noticing this man. He looks a little Hispanic and probably about in his mid 20's with short cropped brown, almost black hair. Light chocolaty brown skin paired with big, watery, brown eyes, kind of like a puppies eyes, framed by thick eyebrows and eyelashes. His nose has a bulbous tip but small and narrow nostrils. His ears are oddly small and his forehead is wide. His cheeks are round and suggest that he still has baby fat but his square jaw proves otherwise. Side burns and a clean shaven face to not make his features any more attractive. Broad shoulder pared with large biceps, but they're just large, not muscular or anything. His torso narrows to a point at his hips then his thighs are usually hidden underneath blue and white basketball shorts. His calves are I guess normal for a man his age and his feet skinny but long, probably a size 9 or 10 in men's.

This man is at the pool nearly every day I work. He normally comes in around 1 or 2 and then sits in his usual spot. Next to the slide and nearly, directly underneath. And tell me if I'm paranoid, but every time I glance his direction he's looking right at me. Then he stays there until I rotate to the deep end. As soon as I sit down he gets up. He prods over to the side of the pool. He stands there for probably a good 2 minutes, which may not sound like a lot but it is when you're guarding a patron clustered pool. Finally, he looks up at me with his watery eyes, puts his hands together, and dives in.

For the rest of the day he's there. When I'm on the slide he sits in his chair and stares straight ahead. When I'm at the lazy river he goes around three times, only ever three times, and every time he passes me he stares at me with those large wet eyes that send chills down my back. Then when he's done with his three trips he goes to shallow and waits for me to get there. He leans up on the far wall and just stares. That all he does all day.

He never leaves to pee or buy something from the concession stand. He never eats anything he brought. All the man does is just follow me around while I guard, almost every day I work. He never comes when I work Mondays and Wednesdays, I assume it's because he must work somewhere.

It's actually really quite distracting and not to mention concerning. If you are reading this and asking yourself, “Why is she writing this down?” Simply because I am bored. Well, also it’s cause I want to document it. Just in case this does turn out to be a stalker then I have something to leave behind for the police to find just in case I get taken. My name is Samantha Sheppard and this is my unfortunate circumstance.

I don’t live far from the pool I work at. Two blocks down the street from which the pool resides on, to be exact. Me living so close to the pool is fortunate because I don’t need to waste gas driving back in forth from work. Plus I like to walk.

So remember the guy I described earlier, you know the one I believe to be stalking me, yeah I’ve decided to call him Billy after Buffalo Bill. You know the serial killer from the book Silence of the Lambs that stalked girls only to kidnap them and shove them down a well that he had built in the basement of his house? Then after they’re hopelessly imprisoned deep within the well he makes them moisturize they're skin till he deems it satisfactory. Finally, Buffalo Bill kills them then skins them and sews said pieces of skin together to make himself a skin suit. Because Buffalo Bill is uncomfortable in his own skin - pun intended - and he believes he’s a beautiful girl trapped in a grown man’s body so he takes the skin of beautiful girls… and wears it.

I’m sure my stalker’s not creepy to that extent, but still, I thought it was creative. Even then it’s not that accurate because Buffalo Bill only takes plus size women and I’m basically a stick. But once again, I like it.

So Billy did something different today. Since the beginning of the season, Billy has been doing the same thing every single day he’s there and now all of a sudden he does something different? So usually he leaves the pool about five is because the pool closes at five-thirty, but today he stayed till closing. And while we - the life guards- were cleaning he stayed out in the parking lot looking as if he was waiting for someone to pick him up.

When we were all done he was waiting at the front, the place I usually leave through. Obviously I wasn’t going to leave through there so I chatted with Kayle and walked out with him the back way to where all the life guards park. He asked me why I was walking that way and I said it was because I had to run an errand that was the opposite direction of my house. But I didn’t. I just didn’t want to cross paths with Buffalo Billy #2. - Did I mention earlier that he is not attractive? Which is unfortunate because if you're going to have a stalker it would be so much better if they were attractive. Regrettably, that is not the case this time. - To avoid my lovely stalker I walked way more than I usually do. I live two blocks to the east of the pool, but I walked two blocks south, five blocks west, four blocks east, two north, and walked through the alley and the back gate to my house, all while constantly looking over my shoulder and walking as fast as an Olympic speed walker.

You can say I was a little frightened.

I wonder if Buffalo Billy is here to stay or if I just ignore it he will be like an annoying child and drift away.

I told my mother about Billy not too long ago. Billy has been doing what I’ve explained earlier; staying till closing then waiting outside. I have no idea if he comes to the pool when I’m not working, but now he’s coming every day I work, even if it’s on a Monday or a Wednesday, but he still does the same routine. I walk home the long way because of him and it kind of really sucks.

So I told my mom of my stalker and this is how the conversation went.

Mom: Why do you think I care?

Me: Cause you’re my mother.

Mom: Why would I admit to being a mother do such ugly girl?

Me: Mom I think I’m being stalked.

Mom: Good then he’ll take you off my hands.

Me: Mom-

Mom: Leave me alone.

Then she poured herself another drink and lost herself in the television show blaring on the television. Yes I know, my mother’s a charmer. She’s been that way ever since dad was murdered. I wonder what dad would do if I told him that some creepy dude was stalking me. Would he be the protective father I always read about in books? What would mom be like if dad was still alive? I think I remember she used to be fun. She smiled a lot more. At least I think. Dad died when I was six.

Whatever though.

I don’t know who else I can tell. Police maybe, but what if he’s really not stalking me; he’s just another patron at the pool. That would be really embarrassing.

I’ll just keep writing down what Billy does differently. Other than that I don’t know what to do.

This isn’t a year round pool I work at. It’s just during the summer which is almost over. Billy hasn’t done anything different that I know of and I still take the long way home because Billy still waits on the side walk facing my house. My mother still doesn’t care about what happens to me. All she cares about is what’s at the bottom of that brown long neck bottle.

Nothing has changed. I’m just worried if Billy still going to be on me when the pool closes. I sure hope not.

I just had a thought. What if I’m not the only girl Billy is watching? It’s not like I come to work on days I don’t work to see if he’s there so I would never know.

Maybe I should tell the other girl guards; see what they say. But what if they have no idea what I’m talking about and they think I’m crazy then that would be very embarrassing. So let’s not have that.

I still don’t think I should tell the police. It might turn out to be nothing and mom would be very angry at me for complaining.

So I’ll just keep my mouth shut for now on.

Well today was the last day the pool is open all summer and I just so happened to work it. So I’m freaking out just a tad because Billy didn’t show up at all. Why am I freaking out, you ask. I should be happy that he didn’t show up, right? Well I was because I thought that he was gone and it really was just an empty threat. But then I walked home. The short way, I might add, as in I just walked down the street.
And he was there.
He was standing right across the street to my house! I nearly cried, but I kept my cool. Well as much as I could. I didn’t walk straight into my house cause I didn’t want him to know where I live even though I’m pretty sure he already does.
So I kept walking past my house then turned and went down the alley and into my house through the back door. And I being a dumb girl was curious and I looked through my front window to see if he still was there and guess what. He was!
I screamed loud and frantically for my mother. And she yelled back that I was an imbecile and deserved to be kidnapped and raped by that ‘mother f*er’ as were her words.

School has started and I have not seen Billy outside the front of my house, which is comforting. However I have been seeing him other places. Just glances, though. Like when I walk out of school I’ll see him across the street and I’ll do a double take and he’s gone. Or down the aisle at the grocery store. Even sometimes when I’m driving, I’ll drive by a car that I think is being driven by Billy, but I’m never quite sure it’s him.

I’m sure he’s trying to drive me crazy, and I’m pretty sure it’s working. Any whose I’m not sure what I should do any more. Well like I never did, but I’m going insane and I guess I’m not thinking straight.

My mother continues to yell at me. She threw her ash tray at me last time I mentioned Billy. I asked her if I should call the police and she threatened to drop me off in the middle of nowhere if I did. I wonder why she doesn’t like the police. Even so I bet the police wouldn’t believe me. I mean, to them, I’m only just a child.

I’m scared though. I really am. There’s no pattern to his appearances so I have no clue when he’ll show up, so I’m on edge all the time.

I don’t know what to do. Someone help me.

He’s everywhere. Everywhere I go, he’s there. At school, at the library, the grocery store, and now outside my window, in front of my house. I swear I saw him in my backyard once.


I don’t want to die. I want to move out and live a life. Meet people, have friends, maybe even a boyfriend. I don’t want to have to be tied down by my mother.

I can’t sleep, I’m too afraid. The only consolation for me at night is the low murmur of the television my mother keeps on constantly. It lets me know that she’s there and Billy isn’t.

My mom is not home. It’s ten o’clock at night and I just came home from work and I could hear the television through the door as I fumbled for my keys. But when I pushed the keys to the door the door creaked open.

My heart leaped out of my chest and I ran inside, slammed the door, locked it, and then searched for my mother.

I can’t find her. I yelled for her, but there was no response. I searched every single corner inside my small home, but she was nowhere to be found.

So now I sit at my computer, shaking and crying from being so terrified. I have to document what’s happening to me just in case Billy does take me and the police come looking for me.

He took my mother. I know it and now he’s coming for me. I’m so scared. God if you are out there, can you help me. Make this man leave me alone.
What if he’s inside my house right now? I’m so scared. I don’t want to die.

Please Billy just leave me alo



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