The attack, part two

My battle to escape my attacker continued…. If you have ever heard anyone talking about seeing things in “tunnel vision” or have experienced this yourself, this is exactly what I was seeing in the moment. As I fought I reached out with both arms, desperate to grab onto a bush, a structure or anything I could get a hold of, all I could see what what was right in front of me. Time slowed down, and I have quite vivid memories of seeing that golden retriever standing there, looking at me (and my attacker) and wagging its tail. As though nothing was wrong at all…. The patrons of the snowball stand stood around, eating their icy desserts, some backing away as I fought to escape. This was a most desperate feeling, being in a place where help is seemingly available, but no one seems interested in lending a hand. Imagine you are fighting to keep your head above water, and yet no one will throw you a line. Finally I realized that I would have to save myself, and I opened my mouth and lunged down towards the monster’s hands and arms. Biting was my best option at that point. Instantly he let go of me, and I tumbled to the ground backwards, rolled and ended up on my stomach. The bogeyman didn’t get the message, and things got worse for me. Immediately I went to get up but realized that the monster was crouching over me, trying to pin me down. Instinctively I grabbed for whatever I could get a purchase on, which was the grass on the lawn. The distinctive sound of ripping blades of grass still echoes thru my mind when I recall that moment. I pulled myself out from under the bogeyman and ran back out towards the road. At this point I was desperate, as the police had yet to arrive, and I had no idea if the monster would continue to attack me. There was some light traffic on the road, and I thought if I could get a car to stop and catch a ride up the hill I’d be too far away for the bogeyman to come after me again. The first car I stopped was a small compact filled to the gills with five people, and clearly they had no room for me. They seemed to want to help, but in the end they sped off. I stopped another car, but even though there was room, they seemed uninterested in helping me and drove away. This left me with only one choice, which was to go back past the snowball stand to a house that was on the opposite side of the street. I could see in the darkening twilight that there were lights on inside. This would mean having to go past the bogeyman, hoping and praying he would not try to seize me again. I could see him lurking in the shadows, standing near some of the patrons of the snowball stand, of which there were fewer now. Sheer desperation washed over me as I kept looking behind me, hoping I wasn’t being followed. It was almost exactly like one of those horror movies where you see the potential victim running for shelter, looking back in dread of the killer being right behind them.

After what seemed like an eternity and feeling like having traveled a mile, I reached the front door of the house. There was still a light on inside, giving me a glimmer of hope that someone was home. I beat on the door, again glancing behind me, sure that I’d soon feel the bogeyman grab me and drag me away into the darkness. Suddenly the door opened, and a man appeared, looking at me strangely. I begged him to let me use his telephone (this was long before cellphones were common) so I could call my mom to come get me. I told him about the bogeyman chasing me out of the woods and attacking me. My sense of relief was overwhelming once he let me inside. I had seen more than a few horror movies where no one is home, or worse, the killer gets to his victim before anyone comes to help. The man told me to have a seat at the dining room table and he handed me the phone. I called my mom and told her what had happened and she got in the car and came right down. Not long afterwards a police officer finally showed up, and I told him about the attack. Then the bogeyman came creeping back out of the shadows, and needless to say I retreated behind the officer and his cruiser. The bogeyman also spoke to the owner of the house, I suppose, to try and justify his creepy behavior.

The officer asked me if I knew anything about some thefts that had happened recently at the house under construction, including a missing washer and dryer. I had no idea, and this was the first time I knew anything about anyone stealing stuff from that house. That was my statement to the police that night.

The bogeyman came walking over towards me, my mom and the officer. I got to the side and slightly behind the policeman, never trusting this monster that I could now finally get a good look at in the porch light of the house. No hockey mask, no hideous scars, no scraggly hair, red eyes, fangs or claws. Just someone you might pass on the street without notice. As it turned out, the bogeyman’s house had been the target of construction site theft at least several times over the past couple of months. The police were unable to catch the thieves, so they suggested that the bogeyman set up an ambush to either catch them or run them off. What had happened that I was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Either way, it was a truly terrifying ordeal. I returned home with my mom that night, and I was pretty badly shaken. My mom knew I didn’t steal anything but she did say I should not have been going over there to begin with.

Some time went by after this incident, and part of me felt like I ought to apologize for being on the bogeyman’s property, even though I had nothing to do with the theft. Part of the reason for that was of course that this apparent monster and his family would become our new next door neighbors. I asked my mom about that, and she agreed it was a good idea to try and smooth things over and let them know I meant no harm.