“Who is it?” I yelled through my closed door. A few months ago I had vowed to ask the question before opening my door. Safer that way.
Unfortunately my dog, who didn’t understand my intent, rushed through her dog door and began to frantically bark. Which forced me to peek my head out to make sure she wasn’t going to chew off the leg of some innocent person.
I had learned to trust my instincts a long time ago, and my instincts were telling me that this man was no innocent. Sleaze oozed from his pores as his not overly clean clothes hung unpleasantly off of his slouch-shouldered body. He didn’t appear to be ill fed, only ill bred, if you know what I mean.
“I need to complete a program where I meet 5 more nice neighbors,” he began as soon as he spotted me looking around the door jamb.
I didn’t say anything, so he continued, probably mistakenly taking my silence as a positive sign.
“I live over on 83rd, and I am with a group of mostly military brats who are part of a program–”
“I don’t believe you, so you can just leave now,” I broke in. Yes, I realize I was rude, but the vibes I was getting from this guy were creepy, and I wanted him to go away quickly.
“What do you mean you don’t believe me?” he nearly yelled, showing me that my instincts were correct, even if my actions might not be wisest. “How can you talk to me that way when my father is a Gunnery Sargeant in the Army and is deployed overseas? I–”
“Just stop!” I said firmly. “I know about enough about the military to not believe your story. You should go now.”
“But I’m living with my grandparents! I don’t like you calling me a liar.”
“Just go, and don’t come back.” I said again.
With that he sulked down the driveway. In his back pocket I spotted a familiar subscription list for magazines. One of the oldest cons around. It sure is nice to have such quick validation that I was right!
Yeah instincts!
And yeah noisy little dog who does her job to scare away creepy people!