The man outside

The other night I went outside to take out my garbage. I paused for a second when I saw this man across the street, waiting in the shadows. I continued to put out my garbage and on the way back in the house took another look.  The man was leaning against a garage door, hunched over, wearing a ski jacket and a hat, hardly moving. I ran back in and up the stairs, turned off all my lights and peered through the blinds. He was still there, motionless, lingering in the dark. GULP. I turned on the TV and flipped around to find something funny, something to distract me. I forgot about it for awhile. I realized, well what can he do anyway. I mean, I'm here, on the 2nd floor, he can't get in. GULP. Maybe he's one of those 'Silence of Lambs' guys. You know the one that made a suit out of women. GULP. I should have gone to the gym today, maybe I'm getting chubby and he's coveting me....figuring out my patterns, learning my routine.

I somehow managed to go to bed (it's called lots of wine) and the next day he was gone. A few days went by and I forgot about him until one evening when I headed out. I walked out the door and he was there! In the exact same spot! As I was staring a car drove by, the headlights illuminating where he was standing. There was no stalker-killer-psycho-man. It was a garage light that somehow looked like a head and a pipe whose shadows suggested a body.