I don’t think I can explain it, there isn't any rational explanation for this. Countless times I have approached my friends & my family and they all said “it's all in your head”. I'm sure about one thing the man who walks around the streets of my neighbourhood with a briefcase in his hand selling flyers for his business, is real & not in my head. What’s most intriguing about it is that to date I haven’t seen his face; all I see is his deep blue coat, a neatly ironed white shirt underneath & a pair of black trousers. What’s most fascinating about his attire is his golden watch which looks like it was manufactured in the early 90s.
It all started around two years ago when I met with an accident & ended up in the hospital for a few days. The nurse said “a minor concussion, nothing to worry about at all”. As I began my journey toward my recovery, I renounced the usage of bikes in the near future. I could see a smile on my parent’s faces as they always hated the fact that I rode a bike instead of driving a car. Now, I realize that they were right about it, no doubt about that. I’m in my 20s so you can imagine how concerned my people were about my safety.
It was a regular day as usual, with nothing much going on in my quiet, suburban neighbourhood apart from the cheeky kids having a time of their life. Being a content writer, my job requires me to work from home & only go to the office when there is an important meeting. I suddenly had an urge to write a novel, not sure about what exactly but I wanted to because of which I was burning the midnight oil & woke up late in the morning. Helping myself with some coffee to get rid of the drowsiness & while the water boiled there was a knock on the back door leading to the backyard. It was unusual for someone to knock at the backdoor, but I opened it anyway. To my surprise, there was no one but patches of mud splattered on the tiles of the backyard.
Annoyed, I went to the tool shed to wash the mud off from the tiles, but as soon I returned to do the same the mud was nowhere to be seen, the tiles were clean. It’s as if nothing happened. Confused about what happened, I go back inside thinking it's just because of the lack of sleep. As soon as I shut the backdoor, there was a knock on the front door. When I opened it, again there was no one near the property. Angry, I was just about to shut the door. That's when I saw a flyer taped on the camera system just above the outside door frame. There was nothing special about this flyer, it looked simplistic & looked like someone cut an A4 size sheet to make this flyer. “Looking for a job? 987002761”, that’s all the flyer talked about. Now a little bit concerned I went inside to check on the number as to why they were bothering me, but to my surprise, the app showed this number was invalid. Now I was sure that it was a prank by some kid in the neighbourhood. To not give in to their prank anymore, I chucked that piece of paper into the bin & went on with my day.
I carried on with my day as usual working till 9 pm on my content & being on some calls with co-workers by that time everyone was back. Just when I was about to sit down for a meal, the phone rang. Confused as to who was calling so late, I went to check on it & was shocked to see the same number that was there on the flyer earlier this morning, after accepting the call there was no one on the other end. Clearly, I wasn't able to comprehend the situation so I went down to discuss this with my parents but as soon I gave the phone to them and began explaining the situation while they checked the phone they said that the number I mentioned wasn’t there in the call list. Now agitated, I went to retrieve the flyer that I chucked this morning, only to see the bin was empty & there was no sign of the flyer. Confused, I told my parents about the same, they didn’t seem to believe me & just said that I was tired because of which I was imagining things. I didn’t buy that but accepted it anyway. Before going to bed, I checked some social media notifications & I was just about to sleep. That is when I heard a loud unexplained sound from outside.
The time was 11:50 pm, so I looked outside to see a man wearing a deep blue coat & a neatly ironed shirt, and also a pair of black trousers & what was most intriguing about it was the gold watch. It looked like he dropped his suitcase & was picking up what he had dropped. Due to the darkness, I wasn’t able to see his face. All this while, it felt like he was looking at me. He cleaned up the mess & just walked away into the darkness. While I was thinking about what happened, I noticed a piece of paper lying on the road. I ran down in my nightwear in the cold night & when I started looking around, there was nothing.
At this point, the events that started to play out made no sense but I knew for a fact it happened. The next day I tried to frantically explain it to my parents but they didn’t believe it. So, I turned to explain it to my friends but they too said the same “it's all in your head”. For the next few days on several occasions, the man appeared & every time he wore the same outfit he was wearing with the same gold watch. He never really stood in place, he always walked around but the most interesting fact about it is that he never approached any house. Curious, I went to the nearby house only to find that none of them saw the man I described. Even on their CCTV camera’s the man was nowhere to be seen.
My parents saw this became a concern so they sought professional help but even then, I kept saying the man that I saw was always wearing the same outfit & the same gold watch which used to reflect the light coming from the lamp post. Slowly I started seeing him during the day too, but one day when I was out shopping and saw him it angered me.
To confront him, I proceeded to approach him but as soon I did, he disappeared from view & returned home in utter shock & confusion. For days I didn’t go out fearing that I would see him again, after staying at home for almost a week until one day something really disturbing happened. It was close to midnight & was about to sleep before that I had to take some medications for sleep, and that is when I saw him. This time he was standing on our property & this time I saw him looking up. I couldn’t see his face but there was a glow from his eyes as if he was a predator. He slowly raised his hand & waved at me. Clearly shocked, I screamed & ran down to call the police this time. With this sudden commotion, my parents came down to see what was happening. This time they believed me & went outside by the time the police had come. Completely in shock, I explained the situation to them & they started looking around.
After a few minutes, the police came back empty-handed after looking around & said they found nothing. They took my statement and returned. My parents said that it was in my head but it wasn’t.
Till now I haven’t seen him but last week the gold watch ended up in our mailbox & along with it was a piece of dark blue cloth. He is out there & he is real.
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