An interesting thing took place shortly before Christmas: I had driven to our storage unit, where some of my things had been moved from out of the garage at my old place. I wanted to get some of my Christmas decorations.
First of all, we were aware that my x-husband happened to have a storage unit in the very same location as my sister and her husband’s storage unit. That, in itself, was quite a coincidence. But I had been to this storage unit a couple of times, and my sister and her husband and their son had been there often. So I didn’t think anything of it when I drove over there.
I went through the gate and parked in front of the appropriate door, through which our unit was located. I turned off the car and got out. Suddenly, I heard my x-husband’s voice! I scurried back to my car, jumped in and quickly drove back out onto the street, where I parked, and frantically phoned my sister. Oh no! What do I do? I sat there where I could see if he should come out, and after a while I did see him come out and get on his bicycle and drive off. Whew!
I drove back in through the gate and parked again and this time made it into my storage unit. As I was going through my boxes and bins, trying to collect what I wanted and leave the rest in some semblance of order, I suddenly heard the man’s voice again! And unbelievably, his unit was RIGHT NEXT TO MINE – and between my unit and the exit! I would be unable to carry anything to my car without going right past him! And then, for some reason, he proceeded to walk right past my unit! I was standing towards the back of my unit and it was rather dark; I tried to hide my face, burying it behind a box, but I wasn’t sure if he actually caught a glimpse of me or not. But my hair was very different from the last time he’d seen me, and he did not know the car that I currently have. So I just tried to go about my business, very distracted as I was, hoping he did not recognize me. But he wouldn’t leave, so neither could I! I had no wish for a confrontation with that man! It had been months since he’d seen our son despite his wishes, and I just did not want to see him or have to talk to him. I made a show of being “busy,” moving boxes around, stacking others – and he walked right by me several times, for no reason that I could see, unless it was to get a better look at me. I had a couple of stacks near the door of things that I wanted to take with me. But I was TRAPPED!
He left the unit a time or two but always came back shortly. It sounded as if he was moving stuff out of the unit and, from what I overheard from phone conversations he had while he was in his unit next door, it seems he had been evicted from the unit (probably for non-payment, if I know him). But when would he leave?
Then my cell phone rang. And it was HIM! Thank goodness I had my ringer turned off! I was just frozen, still hoping he didn’t know I was there. One of the times he left his unit I phoned my sister and told her how I was just TRAPPED! She thought it was hilarious. I was too freaked out to think it was very funny at the moment – I just wanted to get the hell out of there and go home!
FINALLY, I heard him leave for the last time. But I waited quite a while to make sure. Then I grabbed a stack of boxes and hesitantly went out to load it into my car. He was gone. I finished up and was out of there as quickly as I possibly could be, heart pounding. And I was still freaking out when I got home. What were the odds?
I have to chuckle now. I was quite a wreck over that experience! Then later, at one point when I finally agreed to let my son see him (because Dalton actually wanted to see him), and he came out to the car when I dropped Dalton off – he told me, “I thought that was you that time in the storage unit.”
Oh well. And I never have to see him there again – I hope.