About six weeks to two months ago, Trout and Little Man were playing down at their friends' house, which is in the next row of townhouses from ours. It was hot outside, so I was hiding my pregnant self in the house, but with my big windows in the front of the house I can see the kids. They do a lot of running back and forth between the two houses, and their mom and I just keep an eye on them as needed - they do a lot of in and out in both houses, too, so we usually have a good handle on where they are.
The girls had been doing chalk drawings on the sidewalk in front of our house and a bit in front of the open space next to our house. Around 6 pm one evening on a beautiful, sunny, but hot, day, I got Sunny up from her nap and we were getting ready to walk down to get the big kids when I saw this guy walking up the street. He had on some sort of khaki-ish pants, like the blue collar version of what business casual guys wear to the office (BigDaddyFish used to wear these a lot when he was landscaping), and a shirt that evoked the aura of a concert shirt, but wasn't. He wore hiking boot sneakers, a hooded sweatjacket with the sleeves pushed up (a bit odd since it was so hot - it WAS August in DC, after all), and an odd sort of leather pouch on a leather string around his neck, kind of reminicent of what you'd see people keep weed in during the 60's and 70's. He had long black hair, smooth and sleek, held back in a pony tail, and he was clean shaven. He carried a knapsack on his back with loose straps, and a feather in each hand. As he walked he twirled the feathers in an odd sort of figure eight pattern. He appeared to be walking without purpose. I had never seen him in our neighborhood before, and I usually have a good handle on who lives in our neighborhood since there's only one way in and out, and we are bordered by water on three sides.
He ambled up the sidewalk, and as I watched, he stopped on the sidewalk in front of my house, and looked down at all the chalk drawings my kids had made. He twirled around a couple of times, walked back and forth, and kinda hopped around as though doing hopscotch, which WASN'T something the kids had drawn, all the while twirling his feathers. He took a couple of steps up the sidewalk toward my steps and front door, and I thought he was going to come to the door, but he didn't. I came out the doorway to walk with Sunny to get the other kids, and the guy looked up at me and said "Hi - I like your daughter's artwork." Something about that made the hair stand up on the back of my neck.
I said thank you, and he turned and continued up the street, toward the other house. Sunny and I followed him at a short distance, the equivalent of half a city block away. When we reached our mailbox, I saw another neighbor of ours, the boy who cuts our grass, who is a sophomore or junior in HS, and his mother. I asked if they knew or had seen the guy before, and they said they'd seen him walking by out of the neighborhood, going to the bus stop. They thought he rented one of the houses on "the circle" which wouldn't surprise me (half of our neighborhood is shaped a bit like a figure eight, with a larger circle on the bottom, which I live on, and a smaller circle up top, which is at the end of the next row of townhouses from ours - the Circle has 3 rows of about eight houses each on it, and a bunch of those are rental units, a lot more than the rest of the neighborhood). I told the other kids' mother about this, and she and I agreed to keep an eye on the guy, and not let the kids go back and forth without being directly supervised.
A couple of days ago when another neighbor and I were talking about the body in the car, she started talking about the weird homeless guy who walks around the neighborhood. I asked "What homeless guy?" Turns out, it's the skeevy guy. She said she used to see him around a lot back around ten years ago, but then he disappeared for a long time. He is apparently back, not renting a house, but living in the woods around our development. Skeevy. Guy. Lives. In. Our. Woods.
The idea that this guy has been watching my kids and their friends scares me. The idea that he could have been watching ME scares me too, but not quite as much. We tend to be rather, um, lackadaisical about nudity at night around here, since our bedroom windows face the woods, and for anyone to see anything they'd either have to be a on a boat in the middle of the lake with binoculars, or else in the 25 feet of woods between the house and the lake, and unless you are in a tree you wouldn't see much except during the winter, when you yourself would be awfully obvious. I always figured if someone was going through that much effort to get a peek at a short, fat, frumpy broad in the nude they deserved a peek or two for their efforts.
Not anymore.
I make sure the shades are down or that I'm covered all the time. I don't let the kids stand in front of the windows. I don't let Trout out to play with her friends without more strict supervision. I won't let them go play behind the houses, by the woods.
I hate being that way. It's probably nothing - he's probably a harmless homeless guy who is a little mentally off. Or your mild-mannered hippie pothead who has no place to stay. BDF has suggested he can talk to him and decide if the guy is prone to doing harm; I'm not so sure about that, but he's welcome to try. I just can't take the chance that one day he won't snap and disappear with one of my girls, or one of my sons, for that matter, or any other little kid. Someone has suggested I go to the police about him, but really, he hasn't done anything, so what can they do? Not much. Since the woods are park property, I'm pretty sure the park police would have to be the ones to "evict" him, and they don't have the resources to be doing that kind of thing. Besides, if he is harmless, I don't really have a problem with him living in the woods - I feel sorry for him. I am torn between wanting to help him, to give him food and blankets and supplies, but at the same time not wanting to build up a trust level as far as my kids are concerned.
I don't know what to do.
Youre right, the cops wont do a thing until hes done something wrong. But, you can call and ask a deputy to come out because youre concerned for this guy, because I know you are, youre just also worried about your kids safety...which is normal. Dont call the emergency line, just call the business line and ask who to talk to
Posted by: Jessie | October 13, 2006 at 05:00 PM