I was sleeping on the couch when my wife started screaming. She hollered from our bedroom so loudly I thought she was on fire. I jumped up and ran, trying not to roll an ankle or fall flat on my face and already fearing the worst. I\u2019d been on the couch all week, and between the August heat and the lumpy cushions, I\u2019d never gotten into that deep, heavy slumber, so every sound worked its way into my dreams. She was still screeching and covering her face with her hands when I got there.<\/p>\n
\u201cA man was outside the window,\u201d she said, her voice cracking a bit. \u201cSomeone was watching me.\u201d<\/p>\n
I peeked through the blinds but didn\u2019t see anyone. Our bedroom window didn\u2019t have much of a view, just the alley between our little house and the neighbor\u2019s, a few trashcans, some struggling weeds, and a series of potholes. The streetlamp at the corner gave everything a rusted hue.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, he\u2019s gone now,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was watching me, Finn. He saw me without my clothes. I feel so gross.\u201d<\/p>\n
She had a towel wrapped around her, and her hair was damp and dripping. Showering before bed had always been her routine; it kept the sheets clean, she said. She trembled and kept brushing her hair behind her ears. She paced around and wouldn\u2019t look up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll go out there,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFinn, don\u2019t. He might be dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n
I went back to the living room, yanked on my jeans and tennis shoes as fast as I could and stomped out into the blasted heat. Even at night it stayed hot and mean like an atmosphere of lava without mercy. Cicadas buzzed in the distance, but other than that it was quiet. I marched down the alley and back and around the block, not sure what I expected to find. The air smelled of smoke and cedar and garbage, and I wondered where the little pervert ran to.<\/p>\n
My wife, Mavis, is a strong woman, so it was strange and upsetting to see her so rattled. I told her whoever had been peeping was long gone. She\u2019d pulled on her flannel robe, which she wore only during the winter cold fronts, and had tied the belt into a big, tight knot. She must have been burning up under it all. She sat at the breakfast nook with her arms blocking her chest like a weak prizefighter. She kept shaking her head, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t believe it,\u201d she said. \u201cHe saw everything, Finn. How could I be so stupid to leave the blinds open like that? This is a nice town. Now he\u2019s probably out there thinking about me. It\u2019s so sick.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIs there anything I can do?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mavis looked up at me as if I\u2019d insulted her. A look I\u2019d been receiving a lot lately. I shrugged, and suggested calling the cops, but she didn\u2019t like that idea. I reached toward her, hoping to comfort her some, but she slapped my hand away as if it reeked of wet dog shit.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t understand,\u201d she said. \u201cWhy didn\u2019t you do anything?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI went outside,\u201d I said. \u201cI didn\u2019t see anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably didn\u2019t look that hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHey\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJust have another beer, Finn. I\u2019m going to bed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you want me to stay with you? I mean will you feel safer if I\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. You\u2019re on the couch. Stay there.\u201d<\/p>\n
She got up and went to our bedroom and shut the door gently. I heard her lock it, too. She was super pissed, and I knew I just bought myself a few more nights on the couch. I kicked off my shoes, peeled off my Wranglers, and plopped back down on the sofa, but I couldn\u2019t sleep or even rest comfortably.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t know who got his rocks off by peeking on my wife, but I imagined finding him and kicking his butt up and down the street for everyone to see. I wondered what he looked like. Mavis couldn\u2019t describe him either. She said it happened too quickly, too shocking. Maybe he was a dirty old man, a homeless guy who\u2019d wandered into the neighborhood, or maybe it was just a horny teen hoping to get his first view of some titties or a bit of bush. Either way, I wish I had found him. And, deep down, I think Mavis was wishing I had, too.<\/p>\n
The next evening, the guy struck again, but this time he peeped on a lady a few houses down. Mavis and I didn\u2019t know her well, but we\u2019d seen her and her husband walking their dog, mowing their lawn. They were a younger couple, still in their twenties and probably right out of college. I guess the husband saw the perv in the act because about a little before midnight, Mavis and I woke up to him yelling and hollering as he ran down the sidewalk.<\/p>\n
\u201cMotherfucker, you dickless creep.\u201d<\/p>\n
I rose from the couch and stepped outside, still in my shorts. Mavis emerged from the bedroom. She wore her pajamas, which was odd for the season. She rubbed her eyes and asked me what was going on. I told her I didn\u2019t know and gazed down the road. I saw a long shadow race and blur under the glow of the streetlamp. The lady\u2019s husband was running barefoot in just boxers and an Astros t-shirt. Eventually, the poor guy stopped and bent over, catching his breath. He saw me, nodded, and spat to the side.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou okay?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSome geek was jacking it in the alley, watching my wife change for bed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Obviously, I knew what he was talking about. I felt a type of camaraderie with him dealing with this deviant sex-fiend, this gawker getting his jollies watching our closest and dearest. My neighbor looked like he was in good shape, so I wondered if our local sex-fiend was some type of sprinter. Out of all the peeping toms out there and we had Jesse Owens on our hands.<\/p>\n
I waved him over and went inside to grab my jeans. I didn\u2019t want to talk about the depraved while not wearing pants. I got half dressed and stepped back outside. My neighbor said his name was Kabe and that he\u2019d been brushing his teeth when his wife spotted the sleazeball. I nodded as I listened and told him how we\u2019d experienced the same thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you get a good look at him?\u201d said Kabe.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, not at all. He could have been George Clooney for all I know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI doubt that\u2019s the case.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to tell other folks. Sounds like this scumbucket has got himself a taste.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAgreed.\u201d<\/p>\n
We spoke a little more, but Kabe said he had to get back to his wife who was probably hiding under the bed. We shook and said goodbye. He wandered away in the night, hot and endless.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho was that?\u201d said Mavis.<\/p>\n
I hadn\u2019t heard her sneak up on me. She could be quiet as a cat\u2019s shadow when she wanted to be. Her voice gave me a shiver.<\/p>\n
\u201cKabe, the young guy down the street,\u201d I said. \u201cThey had a visit from our buddy tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, Christ,\u201d said Mavis. \u201cHe should call the cops.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe slimeball got away.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cStill, they should file a report.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy? We didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s different,\u201d said Mavis. \u201cI thought we were a one-time occurrence. Now he\u2019s frightening everybody. A damn menace.\u201d<\/p>\n
She turned and shuffled back to our bedroom. I started to follow her, but she closed the door and locked it again on me. I wanted to knock and ask her to talk with me, but I decided against it. I wasn\u2019t tired enough to go back to sleep; I was too wired from Kabe\u2019s hollering, so I got myself a bottle of Lone Star from the fridge and drank it as I stood by the front window, looking out, keeping watch from the safety and coolness of my beloved central air. I didn\u2019t see anybody sneaking around, no mustached masturbators slinking around the hedges. I didn\u2019t see anyone at all.<\/p>\n
That summer had been turning into one of the worst of all time. The heat had been brutal, which was expected, but we\u2019d been hitting record highs, all in the triple digits, and Mavis and I struggled to function. We\u2019d basically stopped talking. I kept waiting for one fine morning when things got back to normal, but each day was another endless inferno. No relief in sight. The sun raged until after nine, and we had months to go before things eventually cooled. Every year the summer lasted a little longer. Now some peeping tom terrorized us like a boogeyman in a trench coat.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t seem real. For some reason I never thought of guys like that being in Central Texas\u2014of course I\u2019m not sure where guys who got a boner\u00a0sneaking through the roses and catching a peek of some lady slipping off her panties would live. I couldn\u2019t imagine what was in the jerk\u2019s mind. He could find hardcore porno on his phone, so what compelled him to spy on his neighbors? There had to be an aspect I didn\u2019t understand. Whoever he was, he had to be a rat-faced lowlife who deserved to have his nose ripped off and shoved deep in his bowels. Mavis was already mad with me, but now she wouldn\u2019t even look me in the eye, as if I were the one responsible.<\/p>\n
We kept our blinds shut. The curtains were always drawn. Mavis stayed in the bedroom. I had free reign over the rest of the house, but it felt smaller, emptier than before. When I came home from work, there wasn\u2019t much for me to do now besides drink a few Lone Stars and watch the Astros or the Rangers or reruns of some stupid sitcom that didn\u2019t make me laugh. But at the end of the week, Kabe knocked on my door. He wore khakis and a blue polo shirt, so I assumed he\u2019d just knocked off work. Another guy, older than Kabe but younger than me, stood sheepishly behind him. He had thinning hair, glasses, and a short-sleeve button up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to talk,\u201d said Kabe. \u201cMay we come inside?\u201d<\/p>\n
I glanced at our bedroom, unsure what Mavis would say. She\u2019d been looking for any reason to bitch at me, and I didn\u2019t want to add to that list. I asked the guys to stay on the porch, and I grabbed us some beer. We huddled on my porch, in the shade of the live oak.<\/p>\n
\u201cDrink \u2019em up,\u201d I said. \u201cI\u2019ve got plenty, so don\u2019t be shy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is Paul,\u201d said Kabe.<\/p>\n
The other guy gave a flat smile and shook my hand. He was a little short and skinny but with a paunch. He sipped his beer, held the bottle with both hands. He reminded me of a mouse with his glasses, small and wireframed.<\/p>\n
\u201cPaul\u2019s wife got a visit from our favorite freak last night,\u201d said Kabe.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat so?\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
Paul nodded. He kept his sight down, perhaps out of embarrassment or just a social awkwardness.<\/p>\n
\u201cGo on,\u201d said Kabe, \u201ctell him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul sighed. Sweat gushed from his hairline and down his brow. He kept wiping his forehead with the back of his wrist.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy wife,\u201d he said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t home, and I should have been home, but I was working late. When I got back, she was completely distraught. She was shaking. My wife is a bigger lady, she prefers the term \u2018fluffy,\u2019 and she doesn\u2019t get upset like that; she knows she can handle herself.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPaul, did she get peeped on?\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul nodded. He tried to sip his beer but raised the bottle too fast, so the suds spilled over his lips and chin.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot just that,\u201d he said. \u201cThis guy snuck in and watched her pee.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t there,\u201d said Paul, \u201cbut my wife, Bev, she was on the toilet\u2026 and I guess the door was open a crack, she was home alone, and she saw someone. She freaked out, but this guy\u2026 he wore a mask.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat type of mask?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA ski mask.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat couldn\u2019t be comfortable in August.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe chased him out, but she\u2019s still pretty hysterical.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJesus,\u201d I said. \u201cDid you call the cops?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, she called the police and then me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has to be the same guy,\u201d said Kabe.<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably,\u201d I said, \u201cbut that\u2019s one quick jump from peeping to breaking and entering.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cStill spying on women,\u201d said Kabe.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s escalation,\u201d said Paul. \u201cA lot of time a peeping tom turns into something worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did the cops say?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot much. Keep the doors locked. Stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou should go home,\u201d I said. \u201cBe with your wife.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul nodded again. We spoke a little more, but by that point it was all small talk and salutations. Paul thanked me for the beer and wandered away. Kabe stuck around. He titled his head to the side and cracked his neck.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to do something.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLike what?\u201d I said with a guff.<\/p>\n
\u201cA neighborhood watch, form a patrol. This is a nice neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not a detective,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThink about it,\u201d said Kabe. \u201cIt\u2019s going to get worse before it gets better.<\/p>\n
Later that night, I stayed up on the couch and watched the news and The Tonight Show<\/em>, but I didn\u2019t pay much attention to it either. It was just noise and distraction. I kept thinking about the peeping tom and how much I wanted to destroy him. It didn\u2019t seem right that somebody could harass a bunch of folks and get away with it. I finished off the Lone Stars I had in the fridge and fell asleep in my jeans.<\/p>\n A few days passed but I didn\u2019t hear any reports about the sicko getting a lookey-loo on women undressing or taking a piss. Maybe he moved on. Maybe he got frightened and decided to disappear. Maybe he got arrested in another part of town and was making new friends in county lockup. There was no way to know. But then, at the end of the month, when the heat baked everything to a dry blond ember, the son-of-a-bitch poked his head up and scarred the hell out of a nineteen-year-old girl one street over.<\/p>\n That day started off normal: hot, bright, and without a cloud in the sky. People went about their business, drove to work, ran errands, ate lunch, sat in traffic, and waited for Friday to kickstart the weekend. I was still sleeping on the couch, and Mavis still wasn\u2019t talking to me. I found myself eating dinner at sports bars a lot that summer; I could munch on nachos, watch the Astros, and drink a few mugs of cheap beer before I had to meander back to a place that no longer felt like home.<\/p>\n Mavis practically jumped on me when I straggled through the door. Her eyes scrunched up, and her lips pursed as she stepped up so close her face almost touched my chest. She poked me in the sternum with a finger and growled.<\/p>\n \u201cYour daughter called,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cUh huh.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou bastard, you canceled her credit card.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe wants to be a big girl, she can pay her bills herself.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s not an adult, she\u2019s a kid and she needs our help. How is she going to survive?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s smart, she\u2019ll manage.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDamn it, Finn, you un-cancel her card tomorrow, you hear me?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat happened? Did that two-time loser dump her as soon as they got to Portland?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d said Mavis, \u201cshe left him.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHey, congratulations, our little girl has some brains after all.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou jerk. You\u2019re her father, you\u2019re one job is to protect her. I don\u2019t understand. Help her.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI called it, I was right and both of you hate that. I\u2019m not going to apologize for seeing the world for how it really is.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou always were a smug asshole, even in high school.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSmug enough for you,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n \u201cShut up. You\u2019re going to un-cancel that card tomorrow so she can come back home.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLike hell. She and that loser did nothing but smoke dope, and she wanted to run away with him. She got what she wanted. She\u2019s not moving back here at the first hint of trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe is our daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd she\u2019s old enough to make decisions, deal with consequences. We can\u2019t just bail her out at every turn and support her all her life.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not a discussion, Finn. You un-cancel those cards or\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOr what?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe wants to come home, she wants to go back to school.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh, isn\u2019t that convenient.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFinn, if you don\u2019t help our baby, I swear I\u2019ll\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know what Mavis was going to say, but she didn\u2019t get a chance to finish her sentence.<\/p>\n People yelling outside our house startled us, and we both gawked at the door and the window. At first I thought neighbors were shouting at us to shut up and keep it down, but I realized that wasn\u2019t the case. I stepped onto our porch, into the heat and the dark blanket of humidity and the wall of cedar. Men ran in the street. Some of them carried baseball bats. A few shined big flashlights that glowed like angry ghosts. I couldn\u2019t see their faces. I couldn\u2019t understand what they were hollering.<\/p>\n \u201cBaby, what\u2019s happening?\u201d said Mavis. Her voice came soft and small and afraid.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d I said. \u201cStay here. Lock the door.\u201d<\/p>\n I went to the sidewalk. Men and women rushed down the middle of the road. Some jogged while others strolled along to the side. There was a lot of noise. Women screamed. The men shouted and cursed.<\/p>\n Kabe almost dashed past me, but I stopped him and asked him what was happening. He wore wrinkled khakis and an undershirt. He was a little out of breath.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat do you think?\u201d said Kabe. \u201cThat pervert struck again, but we got him this time. We\u2019re going to show him our hospitality. You want to join us? Time to have some fun.\u201d<\/p>\n And then he was gone. He tore off with the others, leaving me standing on the sidewalk and just out of the light from the streetlamp\u2019s glow. Mavis poked her head out from behind a curtain, staring at me from inside the house. Her face stayed calm but sad. She watched me for a bit but disappeared, letting the curtain sway in her absence. I rushed off and tried to catch up with the crowd.<\/p>\n Everyone raged. We moved forward as a sloppy parade. All noise and at different speeds. People chanted to \u201creap the peep\u201d and to \u201cserve the perv.\u201d The streets funneled us past houses and towards the park. I shoved my way toward the front. Men already stood around him, hovering like vultures.<\/p>\n \u201cYou like spying on women?\u201d said someone.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know how to fix you,\u201d said a different voice.<\/p>\n I couldn\u2019t get past the wall of shoulders and elbows. I needed to see his face. I needed to know what he looked like. Was he someone I knew? Someone I recognized? Was he a monster or just a confused boy? I had to know.<\/p>\n Men circled him. Some carried crowbars and baseball bats. They hunched over and cracked their knuckles and threatened him. I pushed them out of my way so I could see him.<\/p>\n He was young, but not a boy. He looked lanky and pale. He wore all black, and he had dark, silky hair, thin and a little long. He stayed on the ground, The man\u2019s eyes twitched as he muttered. He had a long, sharp nose. He tried scooting back, but more men appeared and trapped him. I\u2019d never see him before.<\/p>\n \u201cWho are you?\u201d said someone.<\/p>\n The guy started crying. His chin trembled. He looked like a starving dog. He didn\u2019t sob. His tears came without sound. This little weasel had terrified our wives and girlfriends, and now we had a chance to do something about it. He flipped his head left to right and back again. He started to say something, he even held up his hands, but then someone spotted the ski mask. It had fallen out of his pocket and lay by his hip.<\/p>\n \u201cI can explain,\u201d he said, but it was too late.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t think about Mavis. I didn\u2019t think about our daughter or the aggravation she\u2019d put us through, all the worry, heartache, and the endless stress and fear. I didn\u2019t think about right or wrong. That evening, the only thing that consumed me was a sense of violent redistribution. Someone had to pay.<\/p>\n The man started to scream, but we were already upon him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I didn\u2019t think about my wife. I didn\u2019t think about our daughter or the aggravation she\u2019d put us through. I didn\u2019t think about right or wrong. That evening, the only thing that consumed me was a sense of violent redistribution. Someone had to pay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19243,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction","writer-william-jensen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18523"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19244,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18523\/revisions\/19244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}