The Stalker Story

I thought I should codify the ‘stalker’ story I have told some people.

Last year, in one on my units at uni, there was a group assignment. Uni students will know that these are a Pandora’s Box of things that can happen.

In this group (we could not select the members) there were two local students and two international students (both Chinese, although that’s not important). One international was great, she was committed to put in a team effort, and contributed to team discussion. The other was the opposite. Always staring at the rest of us with a blank face, and not really contributing. It is this person that is the focus of this story, lets call her WX. The assignment was a success, but what happens after is more interesting.

The group work was in semester one. All through semester two, WX keeps calling my phone. At first I answer her numerous mundane questions (e.g. When’s the library open?, When do exams start?, How do I connect to the internet at uni?) because, you never know, she may have had a difficult start to uni, and it’s always good to help out.

Then it escalates. The conversations now focus on family, and whether I have a girlfriend or not. Still trying to be friendly, I answer as vaguely as possible. To me she’s still a quasi-stranger. At this point WX is calling about 2-3 times most days.

Then there’s the following me around. Creepy, I know. She feigns ignorance. “Stop following me” I say.

It’s not just the phone calls, but the Facebook messages and text messages. And the strange replies to my Twitter feed. At one stage her roommate is contributing to this madness.

The calls keep coming, then in two weeks before final exams in November, it hits breaking point. WX calls me about 50 times in the space of those two weeks. After midnight on two occasions, before 8am on another. That’s it, I’m taking action.

I send her an email, explaining in plain English that what she is doing is annoying and wrong. I also threaten her with an AVO (I never intended to serve one on her), saying that it’s very serious, and that Police become involved. Her reply wasn’t very serious, I put it down to being lost in translation.

Since then I’ve blocked her on Facebook, and she hasn’t contacted me in 5 months. Occasionally a friend of mine sends me screenshots of her Facebook status updates, which are replies to what I write on Twitter. I conclude she is still mental.

Sometimes I still dread interacting with people.