When I was in seventh grade, I had to change schools in the middle of the year. At my new school, on my first day, I hadn’t been able to find a table during lunchtime. All of the tables were taken, the cliques already formed at that point, and I was left standing there in the middle of the cafeteria for ten awkward minutes before someone took pity on me and one of the janitors found an extra chair.

  That was now the second most awkward lunch of my life.

  I did not have the problem of finding a seat here, no, I easily sat down at the table which had been made by pushing multiple smaller tables together to seat as many people as possible in one setting.

  I had a sinking feeling that this was not a regular occurrence, that the tables were separated usually, and there was a specific reason they had changed things up.

  At least I thought so – they were all sitting together. As many of them as possible, at least thirty people. Only five worked with me. Even Mr. Dawkins showed up to my surprise. He seemed like the sort of person who would either eat in his own office or go out somewhere to eat rather than with his employees.

  Given the looks he got when he sat down, I assumed that that was indeed, the case.

  But not today.

  It would not be so much of an issue if this was just a normal group of people sitting down. But, every eye it seemed was fixated upon me save for some precious few fleeting moments. It was not enjoyable to be the center of attention, it felt like I had something on my face which everyone was laughing at inwardly and couldn’t stop staring at, but no one had the courtesy to tell me about it. This went beyond just being the new guy.

  “So, what are you ordering?”

  It was a simple enough question with a simple enough answer. “A tuna salad with a side of fries.”

  When I said so, more than two-thirds of the people there ordered the same.

  I couldn’t wrap my head around it and found the earliest excuse I could after eating my meal in a few rushed bites to leave the table.

  The afternoon was more of the same, with no work getting done, and now it was time, as the day ended, to figure out how I was going to get home.

  “Heard about your car, sad deal,” Mr. Dawkins said, emerging from his office ten minutes before closing. “You know what, let me give you a ride home.”

  “Ah, that’s really not needed I-”

  I then paused, because someone had entered my field of vision.

  It was John.

  “Hey,” he said, waving to me. “I uh, figured you would need a ride back home and dropped on by.”

  “You really didn’t have to,” I began before considering the fact that he had perhaps driven his kids back home, come back, and then offered to drive me back. No, that couldn’t have been it - his wife must’ve taken them back home, I reasoned.

  “Hello, Mr. Dawkins,” John said to my boss, shaking his hand, though the two didn’t seem to be as close as John was initially implying as Mr. Dawkins’ face fell upon seeing him.

  “You didn’t need to go so out of your way,” Mr. Dawkins said.

  “It’s nothing, what are neighbors for?” John responded. His words had an undercurrent of a threat beneath them contrasting to their gentle nature.

  I couldn’t wrap my head around what was happening. Were these two fighting over who got to drive me home?

  You might think that I’m sounding ungrateful, but this was something too bizarre to believe. If someone had told me this was going to happen beforehand, I wouldn’t have believed it.

  I did end up driving back home with John that evening. As we got out, I saw a truck near my house and met the mechanic whom John had managed to get in contact with.

  “Looks like you’re dealing with some engine troubles,” he said, spouting the same retail-store smile as everyone else. It was beginning to tire me, I couldn’t believe it, but I longed for the day I could see someone scowling or giving me the finger like I would back in the city. While negative, at least that felt authentic on some level.

  “Right, so, um… how long will it take to fix?”

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “Sorry I can’t really tell you that right now,” he said, and my heart sank. “I’m going to have to take her down to the shop, but I should have an update for you tomorrow.”

  I couldn’t figure out what had happened to my car all of a sudden.

  As I walked back home and saw the mechanic tow my car away, I suddenly thought of something. John was really willing to drive me to work and back.

  Had he done something to my car?

  It was an older model, and I didn’t have any cameras installed in it, a fact that I was greatly regretting.

  Speaking of, I hadn’t gotten around to getting an Internet provider yet, which meant that I hadn’t been able to order a doorbell camera or anything like that either.

  I was exhausted, not necessarily physically, but mentally. I figured though that this was just a chaotic first day at work and that things would slowly calm down.

  I probably wouldn’t have noticed it if my smartphone still worked properly or if I had an Internet connection as I’d be too distracted by other things, but when I glanced out of my window I saw him again.

  It might’ve been just my mind or me misremembering, but I could swear there was the same person as yesterday, standing under a streetlight.

  There was nothing off about him. He was just standing there – I couldn’t even say menacingly as he had a dog with him and looked like he was out for a stroll. Only he wasn’t doing any strolling, just standing there.

  Who was he?

  Why wasn’t he moving?

  Was he waiting for someone?

  Who was he waiting for?

  I had never owned a dog myself, but from what I knew they were not very inclined to be led outside and stand in one place for a while.

  Again, if I had been doing anything else I wouldn’t have even noticed, but I had other things to do and fell asleep quickly enough.

  The next morning, I took a glance outside from the second floor window – the man and his dog weren’t there, of course, they had moved in the middle of the night, I thought to myself. That should’ve been obvious – why was I expecting something else at the time?

  In the morning John drove me to work again though as we got off in front of my building, Mr. Dawkins was there at the sidewalk, as if he had been waiting specifically for me.

  He tried to brush it off, saying he was just going for an early morning walk. A lie I saw straight through and yet didn’t call him out on.

  “Ah, John, thank you, but I don’t think that you need to bother with dropping by later this evening,” Mr. Dawkins said.

  John’s face spasmed for a moment - the near-perfect smile wrinkling for just a second before he nodded and drove off.

  This day was similar to the last in that I did no actual work, but everyone seemed to find the time to drop by and speak with me. Regardless of whether or not they worked with me or not, everyone wanted to get a word in. It was one thing if it was my first day, but I was no longer a newcomer.

  I had gotten so many invitations to dinner that had I accepted them all I would’ve been booked for the next three months.

  The day ended and indeed, Mr. Dawkins drove me home. His car was fancier as I’d expected, and for someone who was so eager to take me up on the offer, he was rather muted as we drove back, barely saying anything.

  Near my driveway was the familiar mechanic’s truck, and as I got out I excitedly thought that my car was finally fixed, but instead he told me that he had identified the problem and that it would take two more days.

  “You could’ve just given a phone call, no need to drive all the way out here,” I said to him.

  “Ah, no issue, we really value customer loyalty, I figured you were close enough and I might as well tell you in person.”

  “And you waited there for… how long?”

  “Not long. Twenty minutes, tops.”

  I didn’t know how to respond to that.

  Speaking of other issues that I was having besides people being too friendly, I hadn’t managed to find a different, more useful network provider yet.

  I was bored out of my head by that point and so I decided to go on an evening walk. Like the past two days, everyone was inside and so I didn’t pass by anyone until I almost rounded a corner and something hit me.

  That guy with his dog that I saw the last two days – he wouldn’t still be here, would he?

  I took a furtive peek around and to my dread, I saw him there. Same guy, same place, almost the same exact position I’d even reckoned.

  I could see a bit more of him from this distance however. He was wearing a plaid shirt and khaki pants, and looked to be in his sixties or seventies. If it was daytime, and if I didn’t have the context regarding him that I did, I would not have found him to be the least bit threatening whatsoever.

  However, it was late in the evening, this town gave me the creeps, and I did have context for who he was.

  I was going to turn around, but then saw that for the first time since I’d been watching him, he moved.

  “Hello there!” he said, clearly having seen me.

  He walked normally. Naturally, like any person would. Was I expecting him to grow an extra pair of legs and charge at me, or to sprout wings and take to the skies? Maybe a part of me feared that. A part of me that had been growing increasingly worried with every second that passed by in this town. It was an odd thing to go running off at this point, so I slowly turned around but kept what I considered to be a safe distance from him. “Hello, nice evening, isn’t it?”

  “Right you are about that,” he said, as his dog barked. It was a golden retriever, nothing that would stand out in normal times, and was perfectly ordinary.

  He didn’t stop coming closer, but when he was ten feet away I said, “Sorry, I just remembered that I forgot something. I have to rush home.”

  “Oh, is that so?” he asked. “Ah, well, you know, I was just out for a walk with my dog, and didn’t expect to run into someone but sure, go on ahead.”

  By this point my heart had calmed down somewhat.

  This seemed normal enough.

  As I took two paces away, I stopped.

  Was it worth it to confront him?

  I turned around. He was still there, and hadn’t started following me or anything like that. That gave me some relief. And some hope.

  “Um, before I leave, I wanted to ask you something. Who were you waiting for?”

  “Me? No one, I was just out for a stroll.”

  A part of me wanted to turn around, leave, and not say anything more. But my pent-up frustration up till point burst forth. “Okay, see, the thing is, I’ve seen you standing under that streetlight the last two nights. And you didn’t move an inch for so long I thought you were a statue at first. Now, I come here, and you suddenly happen to move. Just right when I’m around the corner. What gives?”

  He answered unhesitatingly. “You’ve been watching me so closely? I won’t lie- that’s kind of creepy.”

  “Okay, don’t turn things around on me,” I said. “Who were you waiting for those other two days?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. You must’ve seen someone else there,” he said. “Maybe someone who looks like me?”

  Up till that point, there had been a small part of me that wondered – ‘what if I’m the problem?’ What if this town was actually perfectly normal, the people were just being nice, and I was the one who was misinterpreting things because I was just weird.

  Had I seen someone else under that lamplight? I didn’t think so. I doubted it. And the fact that he had thrown out such an explanation only solidified my earlier concerns.

  I left, and he didn’t follow.