...Speaking of getting a series of obscene phone calls...from a guy. It was a few years after college and I was living alone in the "U District" of Seattle. About 3 a.m. one morning I received a phone call from a young man who casually began to chat with me, as if we were old acquaintances. I was tired, but my curiosity was piqued when he refused to identify himself any more than that his name was "Todd" and he'd met me a party. Curiosity soon gave way to tiredness, however, and hoping to wrap up the call, I asked Todd what he wanted. He told me he wanted to know "what I wore to bed."

I laughed, thanked him for the call, hung up and forgot about the whole thing until about two weeks later, at the same time of night and the phone rings. Not thinking about it, I answer and Todd starts talking to me about his preferences in men's briefs and other assorted sleepwear fashion tips. This sort of thing continues for the next few weeks, with the phone ringing on random mornings and Todd getting more and more personal about his tastes in men, sexual habits, and so on. I continue taking the calls because by now, I'm really interested in where he knows me from and if this isn't all some overly elaborate practical joke. All he'll tell me is that he's a 28-year-old lawyer from Queen Anne, who enjoys mountain biking and men. He also will tell that he met me a party, but won't give me any details.

I finally decide to stop taking these calls when it begins to get weird. During one chat, Todd lets me in on a fear of his; that is I'm straight. I tell him that in spite of the fact that I've been entertaining his calls for the past few weeks, I was indeed "straight" and with all the wonderful, beautiful women in the world, why would I choose to be otherwise? Todd thinks about this and sincerely responds that he "can do me better than any girl!" Then he let's slip some little insignificant detail about my apartment building. For the first time, I take the whole thing a little more seriously and ask him how he knows this. He responds by telling me "I drive by your home all the time, silly." This alarmed me and I think to myself that maybe I should stop this little experiment and I tell Todd goodnight with no plans to answer the phone again in the middle of the night.

Now it just so happened that I had recently received a transfer to the Wenatchee office of AAA and was in the process of packing during the period of past couple of the phone calls, and shortly after Todd revealed a little of his stalking nature, I was due to move. My friend Jim, who's been vilified in many past Mark'sWorld editions was taking over my lease and moving into the apartment, incidentally keeping the same phone number. Much to Jim's surprise, I sort of "forgot" to tell him about Todd's habit of calling late at night. Oh, and for those that didn't know him then, Jim was VERY homophobic. Apparently, he had the number changed shortly after moving in.

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