Freaking out

For the first time in quite some time, I felt vaguely threatened this morning on the train.

 

The first time, there was a man who was sitting at the end of the train car facing away from the rest of the car. (He reminded me of the Mad Bomber What Bombs at Midnight. "One of these days... Milkshake... BOOM!") He had very large glasses with Coke-botttle lenses, and he held a breifcase of some sort to his chest. He kept playing with his watch, causing it to make beeping noises every few minutes. Someone sitting two or three seats behind him coughed and he turned and gave her a dirty look. She coughed again, and he turned around and glared at her, then turned around and mumbled something and swearing. The third time she coughed, he turned and very distinctly said, "Knock it off! You're just trying to get attention." Then he turned around again, mumbling, and he continued to turn around occasionally to glare at her an mumble. She eventually moved to the other end of the train, for which I do not blame her.

 

My experience this morning wasn't quite that unnerving, but it still bothered me. The train was very crowded this morning, so I took the only seat I could take. It was an aisle seat. Facing me, two rows away, was a man. He was staring at me.  And not in a nice way. He had his head lowered and was looking at me through the tops of the lenses of his glasses, and he was sneering. I thought it was a fluke at first, and I dug out my school reading to focus on. A few minutes later, I glanced up and he was still staring at me. And then again a few minutes later. We arrived at Tukwila and the person sitting across from me got off the train, so I took his seat so that I wouldn't be facing the guy who was staring at me. When we arrived in Seattle, I waited, as I usually do, until the conductor announced that we had to detrain. I don't like walking up the stairs with the herd, so I generally let everyone go before me. Unfortunately, he waited too. That wouldn't have been so weird if it wasn't for what happened next. I stopped to talk to some people I ride with in the afternoons, and he stopped to "read" the map by the kiosk where tickets are sold. He then followed me up the stairs. I stayed near my ex-Green Beret co-worker and talked to him while we waited for the light to change so that we could cross the street. I was really uncomfortable at this point because this guy was staying within 10 feet of me, so I didn't want to go into the back door of our building because I was afraid it would give away where I work, which I did not want to do in case the guy is a psycho. I went into Starbucks instead. So did he. I never saw this guy in Starbucks back when I was in there every morning at the same time. Unfortunately, all three of the baristas addressed me by name. I love it when they do that, but I didn't want this guy to know my name. I ordered my drink and sat down to wait for it. He ordered his and, once again, positioned himself about 10 feet from me, just out of my direct line of sight. I knew my drink would be ready first, so I had a plan. I picked up my drink and went out the front door of Starbucks instead of continuing into the building through the back door, like I usually do. Then I ducked in through the front door of the lobby before he came out with his drink and saw where I was going. I effectively disappeared. As the psychotic penguin in Madagascar says, "You didn't see anything!"

 

Hopefully, if the guy is a freak, he didn't work out that I work here. Though he may have seen me before, and already knew. That would also mean that now he knows I know he knows.

 

On the other hand, maybe I'm just being excessively paranoid. I've also noted that I'm quoting a lot of cartoons lately, so maybe it is just me.