I think that our window watcher was back last night. The trouble we had with him before was at a height in June and July. I became a paranoid mess. Shadows at night began to look like a person hiding in the bushes. The sound of the pipes creaking sounded like someone breaking in. I would shake from fear whenever the motion detecting light would switch on outside my bedroom window. I would scream the times I saw him standing outside my window and call the police. Most window watchers or peeping toms are harmless. The danger lies in what it can escalate into. I invested in heavy shades to cover the blinds, and since then, my windows have been covered like a chastity belt most of the time. We had the landlord clear out the brush on one side of the house, and lights were installed around the exterior of the house. What idiot would dare to window watch when he could be so easily recognized?

I have not had any incidents since July. Last night I guess I forgot to draw the shades over the blinds on one of my windows. I went to bed around 1 in the morning, and after the lights had been switched off and I was in bed, the motion detector light went on right outside the window. Three times. What alarmed me more was that the cats acted like there was someone outside. Izzy was scratching to see through the blinds and Mischa was beside me looking at the window with an alert expression. Maybe, maybe it was a possum or a stray dog wandering through the back yard that set off the light several times, but given the context, I had a sick feeling that the window watcher was there, and if so, it indicates it has to be someone who lives nearby who would notice that my shades were not drawn over the window, offering an invitation for him to watch the house. I have no clue who it might be. But I reach this point where I begin to suspect almost all strange men around me.

Yesterday afternoon, I got back to the house around 3:30 and noticed that the landlord's boyfriend, an electrician by trade, was in our backyard tinkering with what looked like the motion sensing lights. I thought it was odd and even more peculiar that he acted like he did not see me, even though I parked the car right behind him and we were about 10 feet apart. I got the impression he did not expect for me to be home at this hour. He avoided conversation with me in regards to explaining what he was doing to our house. I unlocked the front door and right away I detected a scent, his scent, in our living room. Like he had been inside our house earlier. "Do you think he is the window watcher?" My roommate texted me this morning from work. "That would be so twisted. I don't know what to believe...." I said. When you're feeling victimized, your mind can come up with some interesting ideas. What if the landlord's boyfriend has installed tiny surveillance cameras in our house? What if he was trying to tweak the motion detecting lights so that they would stop switching on at night? What if he has a spooky habit of coming into our house while we're at work? I didn't notice that anything had been moved. But I will say that I had the eerie feeling that he had been inside. His musty scent hung low in the air.

The deal is we rarely ever have men over at our house. We have cats, not a dog. Lesbians and bi women not living with men become easier targets. I've heard more incidents about lesbians in this city being targeted by window watchers and break-ins, interestingly. I'm placing a phone call to my landlord sometime soon to casually inquire about the lights. She might not even be aware that he had been over to the house yesterday.