Fun in the Dark, Part 3
Tripping Vandals
Two years later I was back at the same school for college. And once again, when I needed a break from studies and wanted some real and active entertainment, I turned to running around in the dark. One late fall night I left my dorm about 9:30. I had my black clothes and a ninja hood and mask. The hood helped to disguise the shape of my head and the mask made me faceless. I jogged down into the woods in the bottom of the valley and followed a trail toward the road that connected the college with the academy.
As I approached the road I noticed that academy students were walking back from some kind of meeting on the main campus. I stepped off the trail and made my way up through the trees to the edge of the road. There was a street light nearby, so I positioned myself in the shadow of a large tree trunk and observed. Two boys ran and hid behind a large rock on the other side of the road. In a few moments a group of girls came walking down the road. One of them spotted the boys’ hiding place and ran up to BOO at them over the rock.
After the girls passed, the boys remained on the road. They were talking idly and looking around for something to do. One of them picked up a palm-sized rock and juggled it in the air a few times. Then, as the boys were still idly talking, he threw it up at the street light. CRASH!!! The light broke and went out, raining glass onto the street! I shifted my position to behind the tree, realizing that they would see me standing there in plain sight, now that the shadow was gone. The boys were frozen silent, no doubt shocked at what had happened. It was obvious they never expected to actually hit the light.
Then one of the boys croaked, “Let’s get out of here!” and they started running up the road past me. I took this moment to break cover and ran out of the trees onto the road straight at them. They both turned their heads toward me as they ran, and their reactions to seeing me were anything but subtle. One boy got a shot of adrenaline and charged up the road faster than I would have imagined he could run. The other boy actually screamed and changed his course, running straight away from me. This new change in trajectory took him to the far edge of the road, where, still looking over his shoulder at me, he tripped over his own feet and fell into the ditch. This all happened so fast, it looked to me like he saw me and threw himself into the ditch. I had to stifle a laugh as I took a flying leap over him and the ditch, and ran up into the trees. I hid behind a tree trunk and watched to see what his next move would be.
As he was picking himself up out of the ditch, his eyes glued on the woods where I had disappeared, his turbo legs friend came walking cautiously back down the hill. He was looking around alertly, then asked “Are you ok, man?” The ditch diver dusted himself off, “Who was that?” He was half whispering. “I dunno man. I couldn’t see the face!” His friend said. They walked away up the hill, still glancing around as they went. The most fascinating thing to me is observing someone’s face and reactions when they encounter something strange and unexpected.
In a Shadow
One night Alice, the girlfriend of my best friend Jon, wanted to go to the academy for a worship meeting. Jon was already there and she didn’t want to walk there alone. I can’t really blame her. The trail down the campus hill and into the deep valley was covered by thick trees, making the night seem full of shadows and darker than ever. It was a little spooky to walk there alone, even to me. So I agreed to escort her.
We started on our way, chatting about the week’s events and our studies. We had just crossed a road and were following a foot path down into the thick woods when my ears picked up a very faint thudding behind us. “Shhh!” I hissed and flipped off Alice’s flashlight. Sure enough, someone was running down the trail behind us. I grabbed Alice’s arm and pulled her off the trail and into the shadow of a tree. “Don’t move. Just watch.” I whispered to her. Then I placed myself next to another tree trunk. Fortunately, she was wearing a long, dark green coat which covered her brightly colored clothes. Within seconds a figured pounded into view, running full speed down the trail.
But when he got within a few feet of us, he stopped short, looking down the trail. Then he looked back the way he had come. He seemed unsure what to do, for someone who was moments before running in such a determined manner. I guessed he had heard us or seen us walking and tried to catch up. He began looking around. A couple times he looked right at Alice and I, who were only 5 steps away. If it had been daytime, we would have been in plain sight. But we were in the shadows of trees, while the street light on the road we just passed was casting light on the trail itself. He finally took one last look down the trail into the woods and slowly trudged back the way he had come.
After a few minutes, I stepped back onto the trail and looked back at Alice. I chuckled, noting that it was nearly impossible for me to see her, even though I knew where she was, and she was in plain sight and only a few feet away. “How did he not see us?!?” She exclaimed. “He looked right at us!!!” I was chuckling again. “Come over here. I want to show you something.” I had her stand on the trail right were the guy was standing a few moments earlier. Then I took a couple steps off the trail into a beam of light cutting between two tree trunks and turned to face her. “You can see me right?” “Yes.” She agreed. I took a step backward into the shadow of the tree I had been standing in earlier. “How about now?” “Wow!” She laughed, “It’s almost like you disappeared into thin air. No wonder he didn’t see us!” “Yep!” I said, “When you are standing in the light, looking into the dark, it's very hard to see shapes and tones.” Then we continued walking down the hill into the deep valley and dense woods, climbing out the other side to the academy buildings.
Mistaken Impression
One night my friend Jon stayed with me in my room. We got up around 5am to try another experiment in human impressions and reactions. We followed the trail next to the man-made stream to a steep, wooded hillside that sloped down from the stream to the road coming from the academy to the main campus. We brought along firecrackers and a cigarette lighter. Carefully we made our way down the steep slope, slipping between the large trees. Finally, we reached a large tree just a few feet from the road.
I unwrapped the firecrackers and gave Jon the lighter. Our plan was to toss these firecrackers out onto the road and see what reaction they caused. We waited for a while until we heard soft voices and footsteps coming up the road. It was 2 girls on their way to breakfast and we decided to let them pass without doing anything. Next was another group of girls. While a girl's reaction to a small explosion near her might be amusing, we were more interested in seeing what the big, tough guys would do.
We didn't have much longer to wait. I could vaguely make out the shapes of 3 guys walking up the road in the dark. “Let's do it now.” I whispered to Jon. Our plan was to toss the firecrackers onto the road in front of them. However, the cigarette lighter was not working well and the breeze kept blowing it out before we could join the flame to the fuse. As Jon struggled to light the pack of firecrackers in my hand, the boys had almost passed our tree. Finally the fuse lit up and I waited half a second while it shortened, then I threw it out to the road.
What happened next was well worth the effort! The firecrackers began to explode about 8 feet in the air and continued flashing and banging all the way to the ground right next to the trio of guys! They all took off like horses at a race track bursting out of the gates! As they charged up the hill, one of the guys was a little slower than the other two. He kept looking over his shoulder, trying to see what just happened. “Hey guys!” He shouted “Wait for me!”
Jon and I went back to my room and changed from our black clothes and face masks into classroom clothes and headed to the cafeteria for breakfast. As we sat there eating, the conversations around us seemed to be focused on the strange banging noises on the road. The three boys who fled the scene were 2 tables to the right and not saying much of anything. The girls to the left of our table had their own opinion. One girl claimed she had grown up around guns and could tell by the sound of the 6 shots that it was a .357 revolver. Another girl disagreed saying it sounded more like a .22, and that there were at least 8 shots. All the while Jon and I were grinning at each other knowingly.
Innocence Faked
One Saturday night Alice (Jon's girlfriend) suggested we go out and try out “that shadow trick” again. So I told her to put on black clothes and meet me. We walked up the hill from the main campus to the water tower. This water tower was somewhat isolated from the rest of the campus and it tended to be a hang out for young lovers seeking privacy. You have to understand, this was a VERY strict school. No dating was allowed for high school and early college students and those who got caught were disciplined. Any romantic relationships had to be carried on in utter secrecy.
As we left the road the headed up the shortcut trail to the tower, we heard footsteps coming down the trail toward us. The trees were very thick cedar on either side of the trail. We just backed into the branches at the edge of the trail and stood there. A guy and girl passed us close enough for us to reach out and shake their hands. It was dark enough that I could not recognize their faces and they did not see us standing there in plain sight against the tree branches. After they passed we followed them about 50 feet behind as they walked back to campus passing under street lights I kept trying to see who they were, but I never could. Finally, we got onto the main loop road that circled campus. “I can't tell who they are.” I told Alice, “I'm gonna jog past them as if I am running for exercise around the loop. Meet me in front of your dorm.” I jogged past the couple and said “Good evening” while I thought “So THAT'S who they are!” They were very good at hiding their affections during the daytime because I wouldn't have paired them up before I saw them at the water tower. And a guy and girl would only go off alone together in the dark to the water tower for one reason.
I met Alice and told her who the couple was. Then we decided to try something on the poor student operating the campus switchboard which was located next to the entry gate. We set our watches to match to the second. Then we planned to tap on the windows on opposite sides of the building at the same time. I crouched under the window near the unsuspecting student on phone duty. At precisely 10:35 and 0 seconds, I rapped my knuckles hard on the glass. Our timing must have been perfect because I saw the young man's head snapping right and left several times before I ran around the corner. I stopped and peeked around to see him open the door and look around, then go back inside. Alice came up behind me “Did you see how fast his head swiveled?” She was chuckling.
It was still early and we wanted to try something else. She said she knew that two academy girls were staying over in her friend's room. (Alice and I were both in college.) She wanted to play a prank on them. So we went to the hillside where the dorm was imbedded. I didn't know what to do, so I picked up a very small pebble and tossed it toward the window Alice pointed out. It bounced off the frame with a knock. After a few seconds the window opened and two girls stuck their heads out. They began coaxing us to come out in flirting tones. I chuckled and whispered to Alice, “They must think we are one of their boyfriends or something.”
We waited in silence for a moment and the window closed. Might as well throw another pebble. This time my caution and gentle toss made the small projectile fall short of the target. I over-compensated on the next one and it “tinked” the window glass loudly. I winced, hoping it had not broken the glass. This time the window flew open violently and one of the girls began yelling in an angry tone. I looked at Alice, “How can we do the same thing twice within 5 minutes and get such drastically different responses?” I whispered. The girl leaning out the window yelled, “I’m coming out there right now and kick your butt!!!” Some other students had told me this girl had earned a Tae Kwon Do blackbelt, but I wasn’t sure if she was bold enough to come out. BAM!! The window slammed shut.
“I think they are coming out here,” I told Alice. “We’ve overstayed our welcome.” We made our way down the back side of the hill and onto the main loop road that circled through the campus. Then we began to walk on it around the side of the hill and past the bottom end of the dorm. We had just been at the top end about 75 feet up the hill. Sure enough, two girls were out shining flashlights around near the tree where we’d been hiding. Fortunately, it appeared as though we were walking on the road for exercise as many students did. The flashlights snapped to fix on us. “Who’s down there?” They challenged.
Alice spoke up, “Hey! It’s Eric and Alice. What are you guys up to?” The two girls came walking down the hill toward us. “There was somebody outside our window and they were throwing rocks at it!” I did my best to look casually surprised. “Really? Just now?” They were still glancing around. “Yes just a couple minutes ago!” Alice and I were nodding, “Do you have any idea who it was?” I asked. The shorter girl responded, “No, but we can guess!” I looked at Alice with a puzzled expression. Then turned back to them, “Well, if they were pulling a prank on you girls, they are probably long gone.” I looked up the hill and then down the road, “You girls aren’t afraid to be out here when you don’t know who it was?” I asked. “No! Kristen has a black belt!” the shorter girl answered quickly. I raised my eyebrows and looked at the taller girl, “Ah! I see. Well, Kristen, if they come back, kick their butts!”
The whole time Alice had hardly said a word. As we walked on down the road, she lost control and began laughing. “I can’t believe you could talk to them like that with a straight face!” I started laughing too. “Well, I didn’t want to get my butt kicked!” I joked. “But I thought it was funny how they had no idea who it was, but they could guess!”
Alice told me later that she went to their room about an hour later. They were talking about what happened and came up with several possible suspects. Then they mentioned my name. “It could have been Eric.” Alice nodded and said “Yeah, but he was with me, remember?” They looked at each other and said “Oh yeah.” And that was the end of it.
Two years later I was back at the same school for college. And once again, when I needed a break from studies and wanted some real and active entertainment, I turned to running around in the dark. One late fall night I left my dorm about 9:30. I had my black clothes and a ninja hood and mask. The hood helped to disguise the shape of my head and the mask made me faceless. I jogged down into the woods in the bottom of the valley and followed a trail toward the road that connected the college with the academy.
As I approached the road I noticed that academy students were walking back from some kind of meeting on the main campus. I stepped off the trail and made my way up through the trees to the edge of the road. There was a street light nearby, so I positioned myself in the shadow of a large tree trunk and observed. Two boys ran and hid behind a large rock on the other side of the road. In a few moments a group of girls came walking down the road. One of them spotted the boys’ hiding place and ran up to BOO at them over the rock.
After the girls passed, the boys remained on the road. They were talking idly and looking around for something to do. One of them picked up a palm-sized rock and juggled it in the air a few times. Then, as the boys were still idly talking, he threw it up at the street light. CRASH!!! The light broke and went out, raining glass onto the street! I shifted my position to behind the tree, realizing that they would see me standing there in plain sight, now that the shadow was gone. The boys were frozen silent, no doubt shocked at what had happened. It was obvious they never expected to actually hit the light.
Then one of the boys croaked, “Let’s get out of here!” and they started running up the road past me. I took this moment to break cover and ran out of the trees onto the road straight at them. They both turned their heads toward me as they ran, and their reactions to seeing me were anything but subtle. One boy got a shot of adrenaline and charged up the road faster than I would have imagined he could run. The other boy actually screamed and changed his course, running straight away from me. This new change in trajectory took him to the far edge of the road, where, still looking over his shoulder at me, he tripped over his own feet and fell into the ditch. This all happened so fast, it looked to me like he saw me and threw himself into the ditch. I had to stifle a laugh as I took a flying leap over him and the ditch, and ran up into the trees. I hid behind a tree trunk and watched to see what his next move would be.
As he was picking himself up out of the ditch, his eyes glued on the woods where I had disappeared, his turbo legs friend came walking cautiously back down the hill. He was looking around alertly, then asked “Are you ok, man?” The ditch diver dusted himself off, “Who was that?” He was half whispering. “I dunno man. I couldn’t see the face!” His friend said. They walked away up the hill, still glancing around as they went. The most fascinating thing to me is observing someone’s face and reactions when they encounter something strange and unexpected.
In a Shadow
One night Alice, the girlfriend of my best friend Jon, wanted to go to the academy for a worship meeting. Jon was already there and she didn’t want to walk there alone. I can’t really blame her. The trail down the campus hill and into the deep valley was covered by thick trees, making the night seem full of shadows and darker than ever. It was a little spooky to walk there alone, even to me. So I agreed to escort her.
We started on our way, chatting about the week’s events and our studies. We had just crossed a road and were following a foot path down into the thick woods when my ears picked up a very faint thudding behind us. “Shhh!” I hissed and flipped off Alice’s flashlight. Sure enough, someone was running down the trail behind us. I grabbed Alice’s arm and pulled her off the trail and into the shadow of a tree. “Don’t move. Just watch.” I whispered to her. Then I placed myself next to another tree trunk. Fortunately, she was wearing a long, dark green coat which covered her brightly colored clothes. Within seconds a figured pounded into view, running full speed down the trail.
But when he got within a few feet of us, he stopped short, looking down the trail. Then he looked back the way he had come. He seemed unsure what to do, for someone who was moments before running in such a determined manner. I guessed he had heard us or seen us walking and tried to catch up. He began looking around. A couple times he looked right at Alice and I, who were only 5 steps away. If it had been daytime, we would have been in plain sight. But we were in the shadows of trees, while the street light on the road we just passed was casting light on the trail itself. He finally took one last look down the trail into the woods and slowly trudged back the way he had come.
After a few minutes, I stepped back onto the trail and looked back at Alice. I chuckled, noting that it was nearly impossible for me to see her, even though I knew where she was, and she was in plain sight and only a few feet away. “How did he not see us?!?” She exclaimed. “He looked right at us!!!” I was chuckling again. “Come over here. I want to show you something.” I had her stand on the trail right were the guy was standing a few moments earlier. Then I took a couple steps off the trail into a beam of light cutting between two tree trunks and turned to face her. “You can see me right?” “Yes.” She agreed. I took a step backward into the shadow of the tree I had been standing in earlier. “How about now?” “Wow!” She laughed, “It’s almost like you disappeared into thin air. No wonder he didn’t see us!” “Yep!” I said, “When you are standing in the light, looking into the dark, it's very hard to see shapes and tones.” Then we continued walking down the hill into the deep valley and dense woods, climbing out the other side to the academy buildings.
Mistaken Impression
One night my friend Jon stayed with me in my room. We got up around 5am to try another experiment in human impressions and reactions. We followed the trail next to the man-made stream to a steep, wooded hillside that sloped down from the stream to the road coming from the academy to the main campus. We brought along firecrackers and a cigarette lighter. Carefully we made our way down the steep slope, slipping between the large trees. Finally, we reached a large tree just a few feet from the road.
I unwrapped the firecrackers and gave Jon the lighter. Our plan was to toss these firecrackers out onto the road and see what reaction they caused. We waited for a while until we heard soft voices and footsteps coming up the road. It was 2 girls on their way to breakfast and we decided to let them pass without doing anything. Next was another group of girls. While a girl's reaction to a small explosion near her might be amusing, we were more interested in seeing what the big, tough guys would do.
We didn't have much longer to wait. I could vaguely make out the shapes of 3 guys walking up the road in the dark. “Let's do it now.” I whispered to Jon. Our plan was to toss the firecrackers onto the road in front of them. However, the cigarette lighter was not working well and the breeze kept blowing it out before we could join the flame to the fuse. As Jon struggled to light the pack of firecrackers in my hand, the boys had almost passed our tree. Finally the fuse lit up and I waited half a second while it shortened, then I threw it out to the road.
What happened next was well worth the effort! The firecrackers began to explode about 8 feet in the air and continued flashing and banging all the way to the ground right next to the trio of guys! They all took off like horses at a race track bursting out of the gates! As they charged up the hill, one of the guys was a little slower than the other two. He kept looking over his shoulder, trying to see what just happened. “Hey guys!” He shouted “Wait for me!”
Jon and I went back to my room and changed from our black clothes and face masks into classroom clothes and headed to the cafeteria for breakfast. As we sat there eating, the conversations around us seemed to be focused on the strange banging noises on the road. The three boys who fled the scene were 2 tables to the right and not saying much of anything. The girls to the left of our table had their own opinion. One girl claimed she had grown up around guns and could tell by the sound of the 6 shots that it was a .357 revolver. Another girl disagreed saying it sounded more like a .22, and that there were at least 8 shots. All the while Jon and I were grinning at each other knowingly.
Innocence Faked
One Saturday night Alice (Jon's girlfriend) suggested we go out and try out “that shadow trick” again. So I told her to put on black clothes and meet me. We walked up the hill from the main campus to the water tower. This water tower was somewhat isolated from the rest of the campus and it tended to be a hang out for young lovers seeking privacy. You have to understand, this was a VERY strict school. No dating was allowed for high school and early college students and those who got caught were disciplined. Any romantic relationships had to be carried on in utter secrecy.
As we left the road the headed up the shortcut trail to the tower, we heard footsteps coming down the trail toward us. The trees were very thick cedar on either side of the trail. We just backed into the branches at the edge of the trail and stood there. A guy and girl passed us close enough for us to reach out and shake their hands. It was dark enough that I could not recognize their faces and they did not see us standing there in plain sight against the tree branches. After they passed we followed them about 50 feet behind as they walked back to campus passing under street lights I kept trying to see who they were, but I never could. Finally, we got onto the main loop road that circled campus. “I can't tell who they are.” I told Alice, “I'm gonna jog past them as if I am running for exercise around the loop. Meet me in front of your dorm.” I jogged past the couple and said “Good evening” while I thought “So THAT'S who they are!” They were very good at hiding their affections during the daytime because I wouldn't have paired them up before I saw them at the water tower. And a guy and girl would only go off alone together in the dark to the water tower for one reason.
I met Alice and told her who the couple was. Then we decided to try something on the poor student operating the campus switchboard which was located next to the entry gate. We set our watches to match to the second. Then we planned to tap on the windows on opposite sides of the building at the same time. I crouched under the window near the unsuspecting student on phone duty. At precisely 10:35 and 0 seconds, I rapped my knuckles hard on the glass. Our timing must have been perfect because I saw the young man's head snapping right and left several times before I ran around the corner. I stopped and peeked around to see him open the door and look around, then go back inside. Alice came up behind me “Did you see how fast his head swiveled?” She was chuckling.
It was still early and we wanted to try something else. She said she knew that two academy girls were staying over in her friend's room. (Alice and I were both in college.) She wanted to play a prank on them. So we went to the hillside where the dorm was imbedded. I didn't know what to do, so I picked up a very small pebble and tossed it toward the window Alice pointed out. It bounced off the frame with a knock. After a few seconds the window opened and two girls stuck their heads out. They began coaxing us to come out in flirting tones. I chuckled and whispered to Alice, “They must think we are one of their boyfriends or something.”
We waited in silence for a moment and the window closed. Might as well throw another pebble. This time my caution and gentle toss made the small projectile fall short of the target. I over-compensated on the next one and it “tinked” the window glass loudly. I winced, hoping it had not broken the glass. This time the window flew open violently and one of the girls began yelling in an angry tone. I looked at Alice, “How can we do the same thing twice within 5 minutes and get such drastically different responses?” I whispered. The girl leaning out the window yelled, “I’m coming out there right now and kick your butt!!!” Some other students had told me this girl had earned a Tae Kwon Do blackbelt, but I wasn’t sure if she was bold enough to come out. BAM!! The window slammed shut.
“I think they are coming out here,” I told Alice. “We’ve overstayed our welcome.” We made our way down the back side of the hill and onto the main loop road that circled through the campus. Then we began to walk on it around the side of the hill and past the bottom end of the dorm. We had just been at the top end about 75 feet up the hill. Sure enough, two girls were out shining flashlights around near the tree where we’d been hiding. Fortunately, it appeared as though we were walking on the road for exercise as many students did. The flashlights snapped to fix on us. “Who’s down there?” They challenged.
Alice spoke up, “Hey! It’s Eric and Alice. What are you guys up to?” The two girls came walking down the hill toward us. “There was somebody outside our window and they were throwing rocks at it!” I did my best to look casually surprised. “Really? Just now?” They were still glancing around. “Yes just a couple minutes ago!” Alice and I were nodding, “Do you have any idea who it was?” I asked. The shorter girl responded, “No, but we can guess!” I looked at Alice with a puzzled expression. Then turned back to them, “Well, if they were pulling a prank on you girls, they are probably long gone.” I looked up the hill and then down the road, “You girls aren’t afraid to be out here when you don’t know who it was?” I asked. “No! Kristen has a black belt!” the shorter girl answered quickly. I raised my eyebrows and looked at the taller girl, “Ah! I see. Well, Kristen, if they come back, kick their butts!”
The whole time Alice had hardly said a word. As we walked on down the road, she lost control and began laughing. “I can’t believe you could talk to them like that with a straight face!” I started laughing too. “Well, I didn’t want to get my butt kicked!” I joked. “But I thought it was funny how they had no idea who it was, but they could guess!”
Alice told me later that she went to their room about an hour later. They were talking about what happened and came up with several possible suspects. Then they mentioned my name. “It could have been Eric.” Alice nodded and said “Yeah, but he was with me, remember?” They looked at each other and said “Oh yeah.” And that was the end of it.
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