Real Encounters

*Please, can you drive me home?*

This is an event that happened to me last week and as a longtime lurker, I felt it was finally time to share my own experiences.

So about a week and some change ago, I was up and about, getting ready for work. Now, my car was in the shop, so I was taking my fiancé's Subaru to work. What's different is that our apartment building only allows one sticker per unit for cars to park in the designated lot behind our apartment building. Since I had ever so cleverly forgotten to move the sticker to his car, he had to park in the parking lot of the bank right next to our building. It was 5AM and still very dark out, but I made it to the car without incident. Now, when you pull out of the parking lot, you have to pass through the Starbucks parking lot right next to it and turn left, which takes you to a 4 way stoplight on the main road.

The light is red, so I'm sitting there waiting when I notice there's this girl coming onto the crosswalk. She looks behind her, visibly nervous and then notices me and starts waving me down. Having common sense, my doors are locked and I slightly crack my window while she stay a few steps away. "What's up?" "Oh god, hi, my name is Amanda ------, and I live on the corner of Dequincy St. I know this is really weird, but I was walking home and this mini van with these black guys pulled up and they've been following me the whole time I was walking home and just... please, I live like a minute away, can you take me home?"

I kinda sat there for a moment, remembering past stories and such, but I sized her up. I could tell she wasn't drugged or high or anything; in fact, she was completely coherent besides looking scared out of her mind. She didn't look like a prostitute or anything either, as she was bundled up in scarf, boots and winter coat, definitely ready to walk through the cold. And then I looked down the street past her, and sure enough, there was a dark mini van, trailing slowly up the street towards us. This last fact convinced me she was telling the truth and I beckoned her to get in the passenger side, unlocking my doors.

Amanda hurried inside, with me greeting her with a "Well, I REALLY hope you're not some crazy chick that's gonna pull a knife on me." to which she laughed and said she just wanted to go home. We then drove the couple of minutes down the road to the street her house was on. She talked, thanking me for taking her home and giving me her information and such, as well as keeping an eye on the minivan down the road. It was still behind us, down a ways. When we came upon her house, I stopped in front of a different one, telling her to hurry and that I'd keep an eye on her until she made it inside. She thanked me again and then booked it to the house she said was her's, going to a side door and waving to me before hurrying inside.

With my job done, I hurry and make a U-turn in the street because it was utterly empty besides me and the mini-van. I passed the vehicle heading back and it was a moment later that the van also u-turned and was behind me again. This made me nervous, so I took a couple of side roads and turns and sure enough, the van stayed right behind me. When I stopped to get ready to turn onto the interstate, I called my fiancé, who was already awake, and explained everything and what was currently happening. He mentioned that if they follow for five more minutes right on my heel, then I needed to call the police.

At this point, I turned onto the interstate and the van was STILL behind me and trailed me nearly bumper to bumper for a couple of minutes before speeding up to get next to me. When I looked over, there were two black males, one of which flipped me off while the other did that stupid blowjob gesture where you stick your tongue in your cheek. I ignored them but I was still incredibly nervous as they moved right in front of me and refused to let me pass them. Luckily, they passed the exit I had to take and once I got off the highway, I was in the clear.

Looking back on it, I realize now that the stretch of road that the Amanda girl would have had to take if I had not taken her home was without street lights, and none of the businesses were open. It certainly scares me to think of what might have happened had I not been there... better yet, would she have approached me if I were a male? I dunno. Also, I think the guys in the van probably left because they saw she wasn't with me anymore.