Talk:Penpal/@comment-1479910-20140331052219

I have some thoughts on this story. They're rather long but I hope y'all take the time to read it and let me know what you think about some of the theories I have. I also hope I can clear up some confusion for those who are left with a lot of questions at the end of the story.

- The narrator says he remembers hearing footsteps as he slept as a kid.

- He would sometimes wake up on the bottom bunk. This is because the stalker was moving the narrator -- perhaps to the clearing, or to the crawlspace under the house, or maybe just to the bottom bunk only.

The key is on the woods and the clearing as well. The author mentioned that at night "they took on a more sinister feeling".

- The narrator says that the neighborhood he lived in was originally a nicer one but people such as himself and his mom had recently been moving in. We can perhaps infer that based on this as well as the fact that Miss Maggie's property was a lake-side property, that Miss Maggie was somewhat richer.

- "I had heard the footsteps, but was too far gone to be woken up by them."

Was the author simply really sleepy or had he been drugged? We know the stalker drugged his victims. Josh's dad and the narrator's mom found ether in Josh's coffin at the end. If the narrator was drugged, how did the stalker do this while the boy was awake?

Perhaps his drink was spiked. Maybe he wasn't asleep, but instead, his mind has blocked out the memory of various abductions by the stalker. This would explain the lapses in the narrator's memory.

- The area in the woods where the narrator wakes up, sometimes described as a "clearing", was a thorny area. There is mention of a particularly overgrown area of the woods that the boys tried to navigate later so I wonder if these thorns indicate that this clearing was in or near the overgrown area.

In any case, the narrator was taken to this clearing. I suspect the stalker moved the narrator to the clearing more than once -- or at least, the stalker tried to do so -- while the narrator was asleep, perhaps knocking him out so he wouldn't wake up while the stalker did whatever he may have done to the narrator. Perhaps the stalker has some emotional connection to the clearing.

- The narrator probably isn't the stalker's first victim. This is indicated by the deflated pool float in the clearing. A child may have been abducted while wearing a pool float and the thorns could have popped that float when the stalker brought the child to the clearing. Perhaps the child bore some significance in the stalker's life and the stalker grew to be attatched to the narrator for some similarities he may have had to the original victim.

In fact, hold on to this thought, because it may be important when we get to talking about Miss Maggie.

- The runaway note that the stalker forged in the name of the narrator implies that this was supposed to be the final time the narrator was abducted from his home. The stalker brought the narrator to the thorn clearing, but this was before a hole had been dug. What did the stalker intend to do with the narrator and why didn't he do it?

Perhaps this WAS the first time the narrator had been brought to the clearing and nobody had been brought here anytime recently. The stalker could have set the narrator down due to the thorns. It is implied later that the stalker was residing, at least part time, underneath the house in the crawlspace.

- The narrator, when he was running home, heard what sounded like a crying baby, which he said he thought was a cat. The stalker is known to have killed animals so perhaps he was nearby killing an animal, which explains why he left the narrator unattended.

Also, the fact that there was a cop at the narrator's house and that the narrator's mom was awake implies they could have been in the woods searching for him and the stalker could have heard their shouting and he got spooked.

- Some hint may be found in the "desert" Polaroid. Perhaps it was a picture of skin (the narrator's), or perhaps an actual desert. The picture was blurry. It could have been taken by someone in a hurry.

- The stalker killed animals. Some killers start killing animals before humans so this makes sense.

- When Josh and the narrator visit the clearing, a hole (future grave) has now appeared and there does not seem to be any thorns.

- What happened inside the house of the narrator when Josh and the stalker had their first stand-off? There was a loud thud -- presumably the large bag that the stalker threw on the floor. The bag moved. Perhaps it was a child or an animal inside.

The thunderous footsteps were probably Josh, running fast. This sentence makes me curious though. "I heard Josh scream, and it was matched by another scream that wasn't full of fear."

Now, perhaps Josh really got away fine. But remember, this was one of the last events between Josh and the narrator before they lost touch. It happened three years before Josh disappeared but after this Josh grew distance. Josh tells the narrator at his party that "You left". Is there some correlation between that phrase and this scene?

Another scream that wasn't full of fear. Then what was it full of? Rage? Ecstacy?

I think what Josh says repeatedly as they are running away from the stalker is a very important context clue.

"My picture! He took my picture!"

This scene is a pivitol scene and probably ultimately led to Josh's death. This scene brought Josh to the stalker's attention. Josh looked much like the narrator so when the stalker screamed, perhaps it was out of joy when he saw that the narrator (or rather, Josh, who looked like the narrator) had returned "home" to the stalker. Even when the stalker realized that Josh wasn't the narrator, this scene brought the stalker's attention to Josh.

- "She had a head of loose-set, white curls and always wore light dresses with floral patterns."

Miss Maggie seemed to have a fondness for floral patterns. Note that later when the narrator gets the card which says "I love you", it comes in a card with floral patterns.

- Let's focus on Mrs. Maggie's sons for a bit. Chris and John. Mrs. Maggie thought the narrator and Josh were her sons, Chris and John. Now, Mrs. Maggie was old and sick, but Chris and John could have looked similar to the narrator and Josh -- it's not too much of a stretch.

Remember the pool float from earlier. My theory was that the stalker has taken a victim prior to Josh and that the narrator reminds the stalker of the original victim. Mrs. Maggie's house is right on a lake where a child may be found with a float. Is it possible that one or both of Mrs. Maggie's children are actually dead? Is it also possible that Tom is still alive and is the stalker?

Why does the narrator's mom tell her son not to go into Mrs. Maggie's house? Is it simply because she is sick, or is there more? Bear with me as this is just a theory but maybe the stalker is Tom. His first victim was either Chris or John. He has been alive this whole time, living in the woods.

Alternatively Tom is dead. Either Chris or John is the stalker. Perhaps one of the two killed Tom as well. One of the two could have kidnapped the other -- or someone else -- and taken them to the clearing nearby.

I'm not sure but I really think there's more to Miss Maggie and her husband and sons than we think, so keep those two theories in mind. The author paid attention to details. Everything from the clothes left in the closet which would come up later to the broken arm in the tree which was part of how he met Josh. I think Miss Maggie plays a purpose here.

- "We launched our vessel a little down water from Mrs. Maggie and waved a farewell to her as she motioned us to come back her way. But there was no stopping us."

This stands out to me as well. The obvious answer to the meaning of this segment is that Mrs. Maggie wanted them to come back her way for snacks or because they were drifting too far into the woods. However; perhaps she had another reason for not wanting them to go into the woods.

- "I dropped the firework in the water and watched as one more struggling fireball burst free only to quickly die, suffocated by the water. As we began paddling in the direction toward my house we heard a loud and unconcealed rustling in the woods. The breaking of branches and the trampling of fallen leaves overpowered the sound of our splashing."

The stalker was rushing to beat them back.

- "Hello."

I whipped around. It was Mrs. Maggie. I had never seen her at night before, and in this poor light, she looked exceedingly frail. The usual warmth that wrapped her manner seemed to have been snuffed out by the chill. I couldn't remember ever seeing her without a smile, and so her face looked strange.

This is perplexing. Mrs. Maggie looked frail and didn't recognize the narrator as Chris right away.

While I'm thinking about it, Mrs. Maggie could have been killed for the same reason people speculate Veronica was killed later -- the stalker was jealous of the love Miss Maggie showed for the narrator. This would make *a lot* more sense than the theory that the stalker is Tom.

"Oh, hi Chris!" the warmth and smile had returned to her, even if her memories had not. "I couldn't see it was you in the dark there."

What else did Miss Maggie say?

"Maybe another time" in response to the self-invitation for a snack.

And that Tom had come home.

The stalker was either in her house and she was confused and thought it was Tom. Or alternatively, in accordance with my theory from earlier, it really was Tom who'd "come home". Either way the stalker hadn't simply killed Mrs. Maggie right away. If Tom killed Chris, could Mrs. Maggie have told the narrator to come some other time for a snack for that very reason? Remember, she thought the narrator was Chris.

- "As Josh talked more about Mrs. Maggie I suddenly realized that the lighter might still be in my pocket and that it would be disastrous for my mom to find. I grabbed the shorts off the floor and padded my pockets; I felt something, but it wasn't the lighter. From my back pocket I slid out a folded piece of paper and my heart leapt. "The map?" I thought. "But I watched it float away." As I unfolded the paper, my stomach turned as I tried to understand what I was seeing. Drawn on the paper inside of a large oval were two stick figures holding hands. One was much bigger than the other, but neither had faces. The paper was torn so a part of it was missing, and there was a number written near the top right corner. It was either "15" or "16". I nervously handed Josh the paper and asked him if he had put it in my pocket at some point, but he scoffed at the idea and asked why I was so upset. I pointed toward the smaller stick figure and what was written next to it."

Okay, 15 or 16 could refer to the number of victims the stalker has taken already.

- Let's take a look at the chronology of "Maps". It happened before "Boxes" but after "Balloons". It could have happened at about the same time as "Footsteps". From this I have put together a slight timeline of how events may have occurred:

1) The balloons lead to the stalker either discovering the narrator or giving him a chance to communicate with the narrator who he's already been stalking.

2) The narrator is followed by the stalker.

3) The narrator finds himself waking up in places different from where he went to sleep (he is being frequently abducted but later returned).

4) The stalker attempts to abduct the narrator permanently and forges a running away note. For some reason, this plan fails and the narrator returns home.

5) The stalker continues to stalk the narrator.

6) Stalker (who lives in the woods at the time?) takes over Miss Maggie's house. This is *POSSIBLY* explained with the theory that Tom is alive and often away on "business" (abducting children which look like Chris) and the stalker/Tom simply returned to his home.

7) Miss Maggie is killed.

8) The stalker at some point either resides in or frequently visits the crawlspace underneath the narrator's home.

What we know about the stalker so far:

At first he moves his victims in their sleep, possibly taking them out of the home and returning them a bit later.

Eventually he forges a running away letter for the victim and abducts them permanently.

His plan is supposed to end with burying himself and the victim alive in a coffin in the clearing.

When he spoke, it sounded as if his "lungs had collapsed".

He PROBABLY has had targets prior to the narrator, which would explain the shark float.

He killed Mrs. Maggie.

He sometimes drugs his victims.

He kills animals.

At some point, he begins utilizing the crawlspace underneath the narrator's house.

The stalker dug a grave in the clearing after his failed attempt at abducting the narrator.

The stalker moves into the narrator's abandoned house and hangs his clothes up from the boxes they are packed up in to the closet. He continues stalking the narrator and takes hundreds of photos.

The stalker develops a fixation for Josh after the events of 'Boxes'.

- This part is a bit strange.

She smiled and asked playfully if she knew the girl and I reluctantly told her it was Veronica. The smile disappeared from her face and she coldly said "No."

The mom knew something even at this point. Josh was already missing by now and the mom had been trying to protect her son. Josh wasn't dead yet. The mom had a reason for not letting the narrator hang out with Veronica.

The mom probably knew that Josh had supposedly ran away. She also would have reason to suspect that the stalker could have abducted Josh. Perhaps she simply wanted her son to finally be rid of this incident and not get entangled with it again. Maybe she didn't want her son to learn the truth about Josh.

- The crack in the back window of the stalker's car was to give Josh air. He was probably kept tied up in the back of the car for the better part of the two or three years he was in captivity.

- Even though the stalker had abducted Josh he was still stalking the narrator too. He probably had some sort of sick fantasy where the narrator, actually Josh dressed up as the narrator, lived his life like normal -- like the narrator did -- and frequently came to visit his love, the stalker. The stalker would bring Josh out of his prison in the car for the "narrator's visits".

- "I looked back and saw that her car wasn't the only one left in the parking lot.

The other one had a large crack in the back window."

The stalker. Was in. The theater. He probably sat right behind Veronica and the narrator watching them the whole time. Even more tragically, it is reasonable to think that Josh could have been there, tied up in the car, only a few feet away from his sister and his best friend, helpless as things went down.

- Why did the stalker take Veronica's picture? Probably for the same reason he took Josh's picture and took the narrator's picture several times as well. He takes pictures of his victims. The narrator is probably the only one who has ever managed to survive, likely because of his mom's proactive steps to protect him.

- To reiterate, Josh didn't actually run away. The stalker fakes running away notes for his victims.

- The theory that the stalker killed Veronica (and Mrs. Maggie) out of jealousy makes sense because he texted her, posing as Veronica, saying not to come back.

- The text that said "See you tonight." I think the Stalker was texting the narrator and when he said they'd see each other again soon he was talking about how he would be seeing Josh again soon. Remember, he was pretending that Josh was the narrator and would bring him out of confinement every now and then to simulate the narrator and the stalker hooking up.

- "Excuse me, this seat is taken," but he didn't respond at all; he just stared ahead at the screen. I remember wanting to move because there was something wrong with the way he was breathing.

This was the stalker, sitting right next to the narrator.

- The pictures. We know that the stalker had an obsession with pictures. The narrator first sent his picture in K5 with his balloon and in return got fifty one pictures, each with him in it somewhere. He took Josh's picture during the events of Boxes. He took Veronica's picture right after he killed her. He sent over a hundred pictures from Veronica's phone to the narrator's, perhaps of Josh or of the narrator.

The working theory so far:

First off, scrap the idea that Tom or Mrs. Maggie's kids are involved in this. The purpose of Mrs. Maggie in the story was that she was killed by the stalker, who was jealous because she loved him, thinking the narrator was Chris.

That said, the narrator was five years old and sent his picture and a note to a stranger via balloon as part of a school assignment. A pedophile who has previous victims and lives nearby the narrator's house recieves the balloon and the picture of the narrator. He tracks down the narrator and begins following him and sending back pictures of the narrator himself.

The narrator's mom begins to grow very suspicious and protective of her son. The stalker gets as close to the narrator as he can. He probably spends much of his time residing in the crawlspace underneath the narrator's house and in the woods. He repeatedly breaks into the narrator's house and does things to the narrator in his sleep.

The stalker is convinced that he loves the narrator and wants the two to die together... Someday. But he probably will not want to kill the narrator for years. He is a pedophile and will only kill the narrator when he is too old. For now, he simply wants to permanently abduct the narrator. Something goes wrong and he is forced to abandon the narrator, asleep in the woods.

The stalker doesn't give up. He continues stalking the narrator. Now that the narrator's mom is more suspicious it is not as easy for him to abduct the narrator. However; he gets his lucky break one night when the narrator's mom leaves him and Josh alone and they wander into the woods.

The stalker follows them. When they try to say hello to him he replies back, "Hello". He steals the narrator's shirt and slips a drawing of the stalker and the narrator into his shorts. He goes back to Mrs. Maggie's house, who he intends to kill because she is too close to the narrator (and because he is a crazy murderer). He kills her and continues to stalk the narrator still.

After the narrator moves the stalker seems to stalk the narrator significantly less, but he doesn't stop all together. He continues to reside in the narrator's house for the next several years and during this time he digs a grave. He knows that the narrator is getting older and someday he wants to die with the narrator.

He continues killing. Animals and probably people too.

When the narrator is ten years old, the stalker sees Josh inside the house and screams out of joy thinking Josh is the narrator and that the narrator has returned to him. The narrator takes a picture of Josh. He decides that Josh will be a substitute for the narrator. The narrator mentions how strong his mother is and it's probably because of the mother that the pedophile never sucessfully abducts the narrator after the events of "Footsteps".

The stalker, about three years later, comes into contact with Josh, who is in the woods making a map for the narrator's birthday present. He abducts Josh, fakes a running away note for Josh, and keeps him in a car, probably tied up. The stalker dresses Josh up (in the narrator's old clothing?) and pretends that Josh is the narrator. Josh is part of the stalker's fantasy that the narrator is coming to visit the stalker.

The stalker continues to stalk the actual narrator. He sits behind the narrator and Veronica in the movie theater. When he sees how close they are he kills Veronica, taking a picture of her signifying she is one of his victims and marked for death just like Josh and the narrator.

The stalker manages to get into Veronica's hospital room. This is possibly the significance of the narrator telling us that eventually another patient shared Veronica's room. The stalker steals Veronica's phone. He uses this to continue his fantasy and to contact the narrator.

The stalker actually sits next to the narrator in the movie theater. About a week later (a month after Veronica died), things come to a close. Josh (and the narrator) is getting older. He saw the narrator and the movie theater and probably did something to Josh afterwards. His "love" is complete and it's time for the two to die together. The stalker pays Josh's dad to bury the two, though Josh's dad didn't bother to look in the hole before filling it in, to his dismay when he discovers what happened.

There's just one problem left. What was up with Josh's weird behavior at the narrator's twelfth birthday party? What does "You left" mean? Was Josh truly tired and thought he'd been sleepwalking? Or was he being harassed by the stalker and was scared and maybe slightly angry at the narrator?

Some thoughts. This is rather long, I know, but if you decide to read all of my analysis, I thank you and would love to hear back from you.

If Josh knew of his captor already at the twelfth birthday party then 'you left' takes on a whole new meaning -- Josh knows he is being targetted because the narrator no longer hangs out with Josh / near the neighborhood and the woods.

I wonder if the floral designs thing was a coinidence though. I am still unsure what the "15 or 16" thing means either.

Thanks for anyone who has bothered to read this. Hopefully I have shed some light on some details for some people, and maybe some people can shed light on other details I addressed for me. All in all, this was a fantastic story. I think it'd be really cool to get a version of this story written from the stalker's perspective. Maybe I should write one.