I fell asleep and went into a horrible dream. I woke up sweating. It was really too hot for a blanket. I got up and went in the hall closet and got a sheet. I laid back down and tried to sleep again. I was afraid I was awake for the night.
My dad had gotten some money from his insurance for the car accident. He got some extra money after he bought a new car. He even bought us all presents.
He bought my mom her favorite perfume, White Diamonds, which was very expensive. He also got her a new microwave oven, which I felt was more of a family present since we all used it. He got the boys cruiser bikes. They were really cool. He got Jordan a black one and Jacob a red one.
And he bought me a Kindle. He gave me sixty dollars in Amazon gift certificates to spend on ebooks. I was so happy. I was reading the Harry Potter series for the fifth time. It made me happy to read about the owls and all the flying that Harry did on his broom. I got out my Kindle and started reading. I was on Harry Potter and the Sorcerer"s Stone, the first book in the series.
My father woke up and said he had a serious conversation to have with me. He wanted to teach me how to shoot a gun. I was shocked. He said he would teach me out in the desert so no one would get hurt.
I loved my gun lessons. I got really good at hitting a c.o.ke can.
One night all of a sudden, Gretchen woke up and was instantly alert, I hated when she did that, It scared me to death. She started growling low in her throat and I wished she would stop.
I tried to calm her down and she started pacing in front of the window and I was so scared. My parents were sleeping and I didn"t want to bother them needlessly.
I carefully looked out my window, feeling the hairs on my arms standing on end. There was a man standing there, looking at me, I screamed and Gretchen started barking.
I yelled to my parents, "Help! There"s a man outside my window!"
Gretchen and I took off and went to the back door. I opened the door and she chased whoever it was who had been at my window. Our yard was kind of big, but she had him in no time. Just as he was about to climb the fence, she grabbed his leg with her teeth and held on.
I screamed, "Don"t let go, Gretchen!"
My dad ran past me with his handgun. My whole family was up and the boys and I ran outside. My mom did, too.
The man had a hood on so we couldn"t see who he was.
"Call 911!" Dad yelled to Mom.
My mom ran back in the house to call.
Gretchen had the man by the leg and I noticed he wasn"t very big. He was lean. He was young.
He kept trying to kick Gretchen off, but she was holding strong.
"Get down, and turn around. I have a gun," my father said.
The man gave up and got down from the fence.
He slowly turned around and his hood fell off. It wasn"t a man at all. It was Ted, the boy who lived in the house behind Chanda! I was totally confused. I thought back even further.
"Mom! I just remembered. This is the guy who put the pizza coupon on our doork.n.o.b!"
"That was a long time ago," Mom said.
I pointed my finger at him. "You work there. That"s how you saw us eating pizza! And you deliver our pizza, too! You stalked my family!"
"Will you get your stupid dog off me!" Ted shouted. "If you don"t, I"m going to kick her."
"Gretchen, come," my dad said.
Gretchen let go of Ted"s pants. She reluctantly walked over to my dad. She kept growling though, and her hair was standing on end. I had never seen her like that. She was absolutely awesome! Her teeth were huge, like the big bad wolf, and she wasn"t afraid to show them.
"Don"t you ever threaten my dog! She is a member of this family!" I said.
I looked at my brothers and they were both standing in the fight stance of the Tae Kwon Do. It would have been cute if it wasn"t so serious.
"Good girl," my dad said, petting Gretchen with the hand that didn"t have the gun.
"Dad, this guy lives in the house behind Chanda."
"You gotta be kidding."
Soon, we heard sirens and the police showed up. They told my dad to put the gun down. My father laid down his gun in the gra.s.s.
"I"m the homeowner. My wife called you."
"Do you have a license for that?" the officer asked.
"Yes, sir," my dad replied, very respectful. "It"s in my wallet in the house."
The officers cuffed Ted. Ted never looked at me the whole time he was being cuffed.
They walked him to a police car and pushed his head down so he could get in. A police officer came over and said we needed to go down to the station to make a statement. My father asked if we could get dressed first.
"Of course," the officer said.
I was shaking and I didn"t understand what Ted was doing in my back yard. Was he the stalker? Why did he hate me so much? I only talked to him that one time when he offered us a ride and I was really polite. I went in the house and pulled my curtain shut out of habit. I dressed in jeans and a shirt. As I was pulling on my tennis shoes, my dad came in.
"Are you okay?" he asked me.
"Is it over? Was this guy, Ted, the stalker?" I asked him.
"I guess we will see when we get to the police station," Dad said.
The whole family was ready to go. My mom and brothers were not about to stay home. Neither was I! We got to the police station in no time. I was pretty sure that Dad broke the speed limit. We all walked in hurriedly. I had b.u.t.terflies in my stomach.
I could see Ted talking to a couple of police officers in a room that had a big gla.s.s window. There were several police walking around. When we told one of them why we were there, they told us to have a seat on a bench. We all sat down and looked nervously at each other. After about an hour of waiting, the police officer came out of the room where they were interrogating Ted.
"He is one tough cookie. He is saying that he threw a ball in your back yard and went to get it," the police said.
"A ball. At three in the morning?" my father scoffed. "With a hood over his head?"
"He said he couldn"t sleep and was playing basketball in his own backyard and the ball went over the fence."
Was it not over? Was Ted not my stalker?
"Where was the ball? And why was he by Whitney"s window, looking in?" my father asked angrily.
"We have evidence, remember? We have the fingerprint on the vase," the officer said.
"How long can you hold him?" my father asked.
"Well, he started asking for his parents and a lawyer, so we can hold him for twenty-four hours for trespa.s.sing,"
"One day?" my father asked.
"That will give us plenty of time to get enough evidence if he is the one who has been stalking your daughter. What I need you to do now is write a complaint about him and think about everything he has done to your family since the beginning," the officer said.
"So, do you think he is guilty?" I asked.
"Yes, and I will testify if this goes to court," the officer said.
"Why do you think he is guilty?" my father asked.
"He is belligerent and over-explaining his presence in your yard. In my experience, his story doesn"t hold water," the officer said.
"See if he still has big b.u.mp on his head from where he got hit in the head with a baseball that my wife threw at him when he previously tried to break into our house."
Mom nodded. "That b.u.mp might still be there. I hit him pretty hard that time."
The officer gave us some papers to make our statement and went to see if the suspect had a visible b.u.mp on his head.
My dad needed my help to remember all the stuff Ted did. I started with the text messages and ended with him in our back yard. I didn"t leave out the time that we thought he was the one who tried to break in and my mom had thrown a baseball at his head to save us.
The boys were asleep on the bench. Both of them were laying on my mom and I felt so bad for them. I hoped so much that Ted was the stalker and they would get him on his fingerprint, I didn"t want there to be someone else out there to worry about. I saw a couple come in and they gave us a hostile stare and went in to where Ted was. The whole family must be nuts. What did I do to them?
The officer said we could go home and we did. The sun was just coming up. We all went back to bed, no work for my dad and it was still summer.
I slept fitfully. Gretchen did, too. It was so weird how she was in tune with my feelings. She would whimper and bark a little bit, every half hour or so. I finally got up and made myself an omelet. About three in the afternoon, everyone started waking up and coming in to the kitchen. The boys had cereal and my mom and dad had hot oatmeal.
At five p.m., the phone rang. My father answered it. He gave a whoop and talked for a bit, asking questions, then he got off the phone.
"Ted"s fingerprints matched. He gave a full confession. It is over," my father said hugging me.
"He confessed to everything?" I asked.
"Yes, even to the sick, mutilated doll he left to terrorize you," my dad said.
"I don"t understand why he chose me," I said.
"I guess he saw you around at school and was attracted to you," my dad said.
"School? I don"t even remember him from school. If we had any cla.s.ses together, I am not aware of it. But, I don"t understand. Why all the creepy stuff?" I asked.
"He said he started out being nice, but he didn"t like the way you responded, so he got angry," my dad said. Dad took a deep breath. "He called himself your secret admirer."
"Ewww!" I remembered throwing his flowers away. Now, I was glad that I had.
"I know. What in the world was he thinking?"
"I still don"t understand why he picked me," I said.
"Ted said he saw you at the movies and he liked the way you stood up to the guys that were bothering you," my father said.
"That was when it all started?" I said. I burst into tears. I didn"t know if it was from relief or I was still afraid. "Because he put a pizza coupon on our doork.n.o.b, way before that."
"Maybe that was his real job and he sort of followed you to the movies."
"Eww, this gets creepier and creepier!"
"I don"t know if we will ever know the complete truth, Whitney."
"Dad, I have to tell you something. The day that you were discharged from the hospital, I was walking home with Chanda. He offered us a ride and I said no and instead Chanda and I went to 7-Eleven for a Slurpee."
"Oh my. Thank goodness you and Chanda didn"t get in the car with him. No telling what he would have done."
"What happens now?" I asked. I was shaking.
"He is eighteen, so, he will go to jail, I a.s.sume, unless he goes to a psychiatric facility. But stalking is a felony. Either way, he"s going to be confined for some time."
"Do I have to go to court?"
"No. We don"t have to go to trial since he confessed," Dad said.
"I am so glad," I said, sniffling.
"How long will he be in jail or a facility?" I asked.
"I hope for a long time," Dad said. "Laws on stalking are getting stricter, and he was a definite stalker."
I felt relief now, I couldn"t believe it was all over, my chest felt tight still.
"Was the steak poisoned that he threw to Gretchen?"
"I don"t know. I didn"t hear back."
I went over and hugged my dad.
"Did he hit you with his car, Dad? Was he the hit and run driver, too?"
"He didn"t confess to that. He seems to have an alibi for that night. I guess it was just a coincidence that you were being stalked and I suppose that the hit and run was someone else," my father said.
"Are you going to get rid of your gun, now?" I asked.
"No, there are still bad guys out there and I want to at least have the same chances they have to protect my family and I enjoy our little time together at the desert teaching you to shoot," he said.
"I would never had been able to use the gun like you did, dad, I am so proud of you," I said.