Talk:Penpal/@comment-35503149-20180505234448/@comment-4533241-20180510034530

You have a point, but it's kind of unclear why he didn't follow them. From what I recall, there's about a year gap in the narrative between the time the author and his mom moved into the new house and the author's twelfth birthday, and he even mentions briefly that he and Josh didn't really talk much after the incident in Boxes, and he didn't know why for the longest time.

Either way, it seems the stalker either didn't really harass the author during this time, or the mother deliberately kept it from him. If the correct assumption is indeed the first one, then that would mean it was because he was "busy" with Josh and would only watch the author from afar; if it's the second one, then he did follow them, and just chose not to take the author. Since he already had Josh.

I still think that Josh being targeted has something to do with the author moving, though. If it wasn't that he couldn't follow the author, then what other reason would he have for choosing to start bothering Josh at that exact moment? Another option is that when the two boys went to look for Boxes and the stalker took Josh's picture, the stalker realized how much Josh looked like the author and got a sick idea in his head, but then what is the significance of Josh telling the author that it's his fault for "leaving"? As far as I can tell, that would still imply that the stalker had less access to the author after he moved.

Unless the meaning is simply "If you hadn't moved none of this would've happened and we'd still be together" – which makes all of this even more heartbreaking.