It was the summer of 1991. I was between my eighth grade and ninth grade year of high school. There was one thing I enjoyed doing and that was spending my summers at the cabin up at Houghton Lake. It was my playground. If I wasn't swimming or boating then I was biking or walking up and down the road. There was always putt putt golf, The Pines Movie Theater or Playland with the famous "Haunted House" to keep us occupied. Neighbors knew neighbors and everyone knew each other's children. It was a time where children were safe to be children. But sometimes we are a little naive to the dangers in life.
My mother just had a hysterectomy and needed a little relaxation. My brother was entering college and my sister was already out on her own. It was just mom and I in the household. She decided to head up to Houghton Lake for some rest. She said I could bring a friend and I decided to bring Amy, a close friend at the time. We did all the normal young teen things. We swam. We tanned at the "premium sun time" which was 3pm, so she told me. She tanned, I burned. We took long walks up and down M-55 browsing in the different stores set up for tourists. At night we would talk about music and boys. It was normally fun.
On one particular day my mom needed some extra rest. She was having her friend and her friends boyfriend coming up later on that day and she wanted to rest up before they arrived. Amy and I decided to go for another walk. As we walked we came upon the troll bridge. As a child my grandpa would tell us that trolls lived under the bridge like in the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff. The small bridge went over a small canal that connected Houghton Lake to smaller channels of water for the vacationers that wanted to live on water in a small subdivision. We knew trolls really didn't live under the bridge but it was fun pretending with grandpa. The name stuck. From then on we always called it the troll bridge.
As we approached there was a young man fishing. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary to see people fishing from the troll bridge. It was a good fishing spot. It has deep water so boats can get through but it is very weedy. You knew that area was off limits to swimming but great for fish. As we passed by we gave a smiling head-nod greeting to the young man. It was just a passing greeting. Amy and I didn't even stop. We just casually continued on our way talking about whatever it was we were discussing.
We walked past more houses and around a small bend. We started to get an uneasy feeling but we didn't know why. As we walked we slowly glanced behind us and noticed that young man was walking behind us a few houses back. He was not holding fishing equipment that he had at the troll bridge. We gave a nervous smile, still acting casual, and returned facing forward. I think our hearts started working at a faster pace. We were uneasy. We tried to tell ourselves that perhaps he ran out of bait and was on his way to the gas station up the road. Lots of people walk up and down this road so maybe we were making a big deal out of nothing. We didn't want to falsely accuse.
There was a small dirt road that went left. The gas station was straight ahead. We decided to take the road to the left. If this young man was going to the gas station he would go straight and our fears would be proved false. Walking a bit down the road, after we made the left, we looked back to check. He was there. He made the left too. We faced forward again. There was a resort hotel nearby. Perhaps, we thought, he is a tourist and needed to run back to the hotel for something. Deep down we knew this young man was stalking us but we felt some comfort lying to each other hoping our lies would become true. We stepped up a walking pace a bit faster. We wanted to pass the resort quickly in hopes that he was just heading back to his room.
We decided to cross to the south side of M-55. We started walking east a little bit and looked behind us. The young man was waiting for traffic to clear so he can cross the road. Finally Amy revealed what I didn't want to hear. "Jill, He is following us."
A numbing feeling came across me. I could tell from Amy's words that she was scared too. "Come on," I said. "There is a Dairy Queen just a bit up the road. Let's hide behind the building. Maybe we can lose him." We didn't walk this time. We ran and we ran hard. Neither of us were much of runners but on that day we both could of broke some records with our speed. We ran past the Dairy Queen and came around the other side of the building and angled ourselves so we can see M-55. We didn't see anything for a moment. Our hearts were pounding out of our bodies. We waited. "Maybe we lost him." I mumbled.
We slowly came out from behind the building making our way to the front. Standing there was the young man waiting. It was like he knew we were hiding and he was waiting for us to reveal ourselves. We took off. I think we screamed or at least we thought we screamed. I am not sure. All I did know was that we were terrified. We continued running east. We needed help. I knew Our Lady Of The Lake Catholic Church was just up the road. I ran up to the doors and it was locked. Drats! Thinking fast, and wanting to be in the safety of home, I knew we had to head back in that direction. We zigzagged around some more buildings with this young man still in hot pursuit a little bit behind us.
We crossed back to the north side of M-55 and ran into Oliver's Furniture. The building was surrounded with tinted windows so we could see if the young man was coming. We had to catch our breath. We didn't even notice anyone else in the store. We didn't want to take our eyes away from the road in case he would pop out at us from somewhere. A lady in the store must of known we were in some kind of distress. It isn't everyday where young teen girls want to check out a furniture store. We told her our dilemma and she escorted us to the break room and gave us a glass of water. We felt safe but we didn't know what to do next. Neither of us wanted to leave that break room.
A short time later the same kind lady opens the door. "We just seen him peeking in through the glass windows. He does look creepy. I have called the police." We felt relieved of emotion. We thanked her greatly. We knew then things were going to be alright.
The police officer arrived and we told him the whole story. He told us he looked around the area and didn't see the young man. We did the right thing by coming into the store for safety and that he would take us home. Those were the best sounding words I wanted to hear. Take us home! "Keep your eyes open in case you see him." the officer told us. We were both in the back seat, our first time in a police car. She was looking out her side of the window and I was looking out my side of the window. Even though we didn't do anything wrong just sitting in the back seat of a police car made us feel guilty, like we did something wrong. It was uncomfortable feeling but somehow knowing we were heading home made it a bit easier.
We were coming up to the troll bridge when Amy and I noticed a young man standing near the top of the bridge with his fishing pole in the water. "THAT'S HIM! THAT'S HIM!" we both shouted. Our hearts started to beat faster with adrenaline.
The officer pulled over, got out and talked with the young man. Feeling safe in the police car we were able to get a closer look at this young man. He looked like he was in his early 20's. He was a little unshaven, hat on, and unappealing. He was denying everything the police officer was questioning him on. We felt anger towards him for lying to the police officer. There was nothing much more the police officer could do. He told the guy to keep his nose clean and stay away from us. The police officer started pulling away.
Suddenly, and without warning, the officer slams on the breaks and throws the car into reverse and speeds backwards. It caught Amy and I by suprise. The officer storms out of the car very angry. He starts yelling at the young man. "DO YOU FIND THIS FUNNY?! THIS IS NO LAUGHING MATTER...." and on and on he yelled. Amy and I looked at each other in shock. The young man looked as if he was about to pee himself he was so scared. The young man's eyes didn't want to make eye contact with the officer. He just kept mumbling no and shaking his head. After the officer was done chewing out this guy he gets back into the car and drives off. Amy and I hid our excitment of the cop getting after the young man. We didn't want the cop to go off on us like that. Neither of us spoke a word until we pulled into the drive.
"I want to talk with your mother to let her know what happened and to assure her you girls are safe." the police officer told us. I invited him up to the house.
I motioned to him to wait outside because I knew my mom was resting. I went into her bedroom and gently tried to wake her up. "Mom," I lightly whispered, "there is a police officer here to talk with you."
"Oh, it's just John. Tell him I am resting and he can welcome himself into the living room" she mumbles. My mom's friend, Patty's boyfriend, little did I know, was a police officer in another town and was meeting Patty there at the cabin.
I shook my mom's arm. "No, mom, this is not John. This is a real police officer here to talk with you."
"Ma'am" he entered her bedroom and jiggled her foot. I don't know if it was his deep voice or him shaking her foot that made her suddenly wake up. "I want to let you know the girls are okay."
My mom, fully awake now, tried to utter a few words but could hardly speak. "who....what....girls are okay?..."
The officer filled her in on the whole story. Amy and I just stood there at the foot of her bed with our heads down gazing at the floor. The officer instructed my mom that we should probably stick close to home for the rest of the day. No arguing with that one. I think Amy and I already knew we didn't want to head back out for a walk. That was too much excitment for us for one day.
After the officer left, and my mom still in shock over the whole ordeal, wanted more details from us on what happened. Over something to eat in the kitchen we shared everything that happened, again, with my mom.
Looking back I realized that Amy and I probably did the right thing but it just took us longer to do it. We should of went looking for help right away instead of running away in hopes of getting the young man off our trail.
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