The Stalker:

by Jack Erickson

A schoolboy is bullied by a classmate to follow a beautiful young woman when she gets off a bus after work. He follows her, and becomes intrigued by her private life. Years later, he meets her in a professional setting and learns intimate details of her life. His fantasies become an obsession, he begins stalking her, watching her with lovers, imaging what it would be like if he could become one. She invites him to her home for a brief business meeting not knowing how this feeds his fantasies. One weekend, when he knows she is away with a boyfriend, he crosses over the line . . .

33 pages, Kindle Edition

About the author

My interest in fiction, especially mysteries, started when I was about ten years old and read my first Hardy Boys books, "Secret of the Old Clock," I think the title was. I saved up from mowing lawns and running errands to buy every title I could. They were only $1.00 each, but when you're only making 25 cents an hour, it takes time to save those nickels and dimes.

And then I discovered shelves of exciting books at my hometown Andrew Carnegie Memorial library just two blocks away from our middle class home in the Midwest. By that time I was reading "The Saturday Evening Post," "Collier's," "Life," "Look," "Time," "Argosy," "True," "Photoplay," that my parents subscribed to and others I can't remember. Needless to say, I skimmed through them all, and devoured short stories by John O'Hara, John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, Herman Wouk, and Earl Stanley Gardner.

I believe my early interest in reading was a major factor in liking school. Writing term papers was no big deal, and we all know how important that is at university. I enjoyed the many choices available with a liberal arts education and sampled liberally from science, history, languages, art history, literature, and political science.

Those wide ranging interests are probably a factor in the careers I chose, including Russian specialist in U.S. government, legislative aide and speechwriter in U.S. Senate, free-lance writer, former publisher (Red Brick Press) and author of several craft brewing books in the early days of the industry. My most recent career was in financial services from which I recently retired to travel and write.

I've been writing fiction, mostly mysteries and romantic suspense, and have several projects that will be published in the next few months.

I'm always fascinated how people become readers and writers. I'd love to hear your stories how writing chose you.

Reviews

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jack Erickson has written other short stories, but this is the first that I have read. We meet a teenage stalker, name unknown, who finds himself obsessed with the same woman over the course of a decade. His friend suggests following someone for fun. Why not? Who isn’t curious about what people’s lives are like, what they do and where they go? He sees a beautiful girl near a bus station. Captivated by her beauty, he has chosen his prey.

The story jumps from the boy being 14 to college age. He unexpectedly runs into her again at his summer job where they both work. Sure enough, the woman, Alexis, is once again the focus of the stalker’s attention. He goes out of his way to run into her. His persistence on learning more about her and watching her from afar fuel his fascination.

We are propelled into the future again, to the stalker’s next career and how he meets Alexis again. As the stalker becomes more obsessed, he turns the notch up on his stalking activities that result in a major twist at the end.

I find it hard to write enough about the story without giving away the ending or re-writing the author’s narrative. Although it was only 20 pages, the story still played out with continuity and a surprise ending. I was very intrigued from the beginning as the plot kept my attention and I could not put it down. The author did an impressive job of taking what could have been a long, drawn out narrative into a succinct and exciting page-turner. We do not learn the main character's name but that does not distract from the story. Mr. Erickson tapped into feelings that most people have experienced: curiosity. Unfortunately for the narrator, he turned curiosity into a dangerous fixation.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting short story that is able to read in one sitting. I enjoyed it and the ending was wow! Did not expect that.