The Man In The Green Jacket
Maryland, USA
February 2008
This had happened a couple of months after I graduated from college.
I had been lucky enough to find an apartment soon after I graduated from college. I graduated from Princeton, and moved back near home so I could see my parents. In one month, I had found a nice apartment, in a nice neighborhood in Glen Burnie. I finished packing all of my stuff from my room at home, and threw it into my car. The stuff that I had kept in my dorm was already placed in my new apartment. The weird thing was, this apartment had only one way into the gates. There was this 10 minute pathway that led to the huge community. It was a single lane road, with no street lights. It was pretty spooky at night, because the area was surrounded with trees.
Anyways, after I had everything packed, I took all my stuff to the apartment, and unloaded. After about two hours, I came back home. I hung out with my dad for a while, watching the football game. (It was a Sunday evening.) My mom was upstairs in the kitchen, preparing dinner. Hours later, the sky started to turn a little gray. It was around...I would say six o' clock? It was in the evening. I had this feeling that it was going to rain, but I just shrugged it off since I loved the rain. After I had finished eating dinner, hung with my parents some more, I gave them a quick goodbye, and hopped into my car. It was around...I'd say ten o' clock? It was pretty dark, and it was drizzling slightly. It wasn't completely dark, since it was the middle of summer.
Around 30 minutes later, I had arrived to the ten minute pathway that led to the apartment homes. I felt kind of uneasy for some reason, and I wanted to get home as fast as I could. Driving around 40 mph on a 25 mph road, I was starting to panic for no reason. The rain was getting a bit heavier, and it was around 10:40 -11:00 when I saw this man walk along the side of the road, heading for the apartments. He was wearing a green jacket, with blue jeans. He had a baseball cap on, and was carrying something that looked like a backpack. Not many people walked along here, so it felt a bit weird to me. But around seven minutes into the path, I saw a man walking along the right side of the road. What really spooked me out was that this man was wearing a green jacket, and blue jeans. He had the same exact baseball cap on, and was carrying the same exact backpack. I never got around to see his face, but I'd say he was around 6 feet tall, 180 pounds. My heart was pounding really hard by then, and as soon as I parked my car I yanked the keys out of the socket and ran inside to my apartment.
From inside my room I locked the car. (Its one of those wireless car lock thingies.) Being a person of action, I decided that I may have been imagining something, and decided to go back to the path. I really wanted to see what was going on. I was really stupid going down that path again, but I was somewhat lucky because the man was gone.
This experience doesn't spook me anymore, because I made humour out of it. But it did for the next three or so months. But everytime I see a person walking down that path, I remember the man in the green jacket.