Sunday, September 21, 2008

So, in human development class

the instructor read us some letters from a case study, a kid he'd actually treated, but was also a crime investigation.

Basically this was one high school student stalking another, for years. He read us some of the letters that he'd anonymously sent the other boy and had been given to the police.

The early ones went like:

well, no, I won't recreate them, because you know what, I haven't been stalked like that? and even for me, it was really hard to listen to them. Rather detailed and explicit threats and demands (to wear specific pieces of clothing, it was obvious that he really was monitoring the other student VERY closely), and elaborations on how exactly the one student planned to kill the other. Apparently at one point he'd actually followed through to the point of slitting a candy bar down the seam, filling it with rat poison, and leaving it in the other student's car. (He didn't eat it).

Needless to say, the family, and the school were rather frantic.

A year goes by, and then the student gets another letter:

(from recreation, roughly)

"Dear ___, I hope you don't think I've forgotten about you. I've been thinking about you more than ever. But this time, I'm not going to threaten you. I've been doing some thinking. I've come to a realization. I love you. You are the most beautiful, gorgeous, Adonis like..."

and so on. well, and then still with the "requests" that he meet the stalker at something like, either Tuesday, May the 8th or Friday the somethingth. at 2:14 or at 5 pm respectively; if on Tuesday, wearing the orange shirt with the __ team logo, if on the Friday... you get the idea.

and then, finishing off with, "with selfless and pure devotion" (as taken from the Webster definition of "love," which the kid made sure to include).

Well, I mean, this isn't exactly news, that stalkers have this uhm thin line between love and hate. The details were rather fascinating in a horrid way, though.

So, eventually, they caught him, and the instructor got to treat the offender--reluctantly, because, well, understandable: hi, what if he decides to change the object of his stalkerish affection to -him-? it's a real possibility...

we didn't get to many details after that, but one was: apparently, the kid had a pet.

We were asked to guess what the pet was. "A snake, a pit bull...a rock."

Nope.

A goose.

Have you ever seen a goose? he asks. They're MEAN. They hiss, and they spit...

so, the kid's been keeping this -goose- in his house, in his room, shitting all over everything, honking, you know.

And, he brings the goose to family therapy, along with the raging violent alcoholic dad (surprise) and whoever else.

So every time the father tries to speak, the goose starts honking at him and beating him up...

Yeah, I know why I changed from theatre: this is MUCH more unlikely than any shit I could've made up.

8 comments:

Anthony Kennerson said...

Oh, WOW, Belle..and I thought that people who kept snakes and chickens as pets were totally whacked.

Just one more reason why reality is the best soap opera of all....I guess.


Anthony

andi said...

Geese are nasty fuckers. My "babci" (my uncle's mother rather than my bio grandma) had them when we were kids..they were evil. They bit, hissed, tried to beat you with their wings and shit all over the place - but they made a grand Sunday dinner.
I can see using them as a security device,,,but I don't know of anyone who would allow live ones in the house or office! The parents were as nuts as the kid for allowing this pet to take precedence over the father and into their home.
Life is indeed crazier than fiction.

Outis said...

Was the stalker ever diagnosed with FAS?

Insofar as Geese being ugly....

You haven't lived until you have rounded a tight corner in a river in your kayak and run into Mom, Dad, and baby... Swans.

If you have never found yourself in this situation, let me assure you that the first eye contact with "Dad" will be with your head up. Yep, sitting in a kayak you will be looking up to make eye contact.

Daddy is three times the size of your average goose, and has an attitude when protecting his young. The results of this encounter can be rather ugly, depending on how much Goddess energy you can generate or your kayaking skills...

Dw3t-Hthr said...

*eyes AK*

Well, that's a new reason for someone to consider me totally whacked, I suppose.... ;)

belledame222 said...

snake, chicken or both?

snakes are usually fairly well behaved afaik, although not my cuppa.

chickens are...pragmatic?

"we need the eggs."

and yeah, I totally believe swans are like geese on steroids. heh. when I was a kid, I thought they were so Womantic, you know, the way some little girls do...they're pretty.

the lesson that "pretty" and "mean motherfucker" can go together isn't necessarily one you know that early...

fastlad said...

the alcoholic father and the goose are elements that make this read like a whacked out fairy tale. that's the most unsettling thing i've read since this mornings headlines.

little light said...

Word, outis. I've tangled with swans before. You know they have specialized structures in their wing bones just for beating the crap out of things?
Back home, they used to post warning signs around areas swans might nest.

I gots to say, I know plenty of people who happily keep chickens (and snakes), and as a kid, I kept ducks by the double handful, but geese? Man, when the geese from the farm up the road cruised on by, we went inside.
Well, except for that one time. But that's another story.

Dw3t-Hthr said...

Royal python.

A friend of mine in high school had chickens. Lots of eggs, but her backyard was full of psychotic orange-eyed velociraptor wannabes. Not a trade I'd make, personally....