As with my previous story, I will do a bit of background first before it gets to the interesting bits. All characters, names, scenarios, places are fictional, if it looks familiar to you, its your imagination running wild.
Had a complaint from one reader who was upset with my punctuation in my first story. I am not an author, just a rank amateur having a go, if its the same problem in this one, please accept my apologies. Maybe in time, if I carry on I will improve or maybe not. Anyway hope you enjoy it.
My name is John Jackson, I get called JJ something from my early school days, I left college with a masters degree in engineering and computer programming, not bad for a nearly 20 year old, but not when you take into account my non existent private life.
My dad Peter is an engineer on deep sea vessels, 6 months on 6 months off, mum Jane is a free lance IT consultant, its far less surprising, when you take in to account they have been schooling me for years.
We live on the edge of a little town called Aslington Heath, we are right up at the top of the hill, we are in a block of 10 semi detached houses. There used to be a farmers field between them and the rest of the semis, which stretch down in to the town. However the farmer diversified and opened up a garden centre and filled the gap, there was a bit of not in our back yard stuff but the council rightly took no notice and he built his shop. I didn't complain it gave me my first full time job.
I had tried without any success to get a job in engineering or IT, but nobody in our local area were taking on new staff, Dad wanted me to go to sea like him, but I just didn't fancy the idea of been stuck at sea for 6 months, even if it was travelling the world, according to him it made him a man. Mum was the total opposite according to her, I must be patient and keep applying, as the correct job will magically appear just as hers did. She wanted me to start as a trainee in IT company, build up a reputation as she did, then branch out into the world of consultancy. I tried to persuade her to let me work for her, but she was having none of it. She had her reputation to protect and sending out a trainee was a definite no.
That's why I started work in the spring at the garden centre, another of her notions that prospective employers like to see that their recruits have not just sat on the backsides and waited for the job, they went out took any job to show they are prepared to do anything to gain work experience.
They took me on to assist with deliveries, stock rotation and anything they didn't fancy doing themselves, which wasn't too bad as I could just do what I pretty much fancied as long as it all got done, there was no pressure.
The two storey building was ground floor for the shop and the storage areas in the upper floor, which were mostly filled with shelving, it was where all the unsold stuff from Easter, Halloween, Xmas was stored along with all the various seasonal decorations.
I had been sent upstairs to organise the shelving, make it ready for all the easter decorations to be taken down and stored. Unfortunately for me, that meant remaking all the flat packed empty boxes stored on the shelves. Do an hour a day they said, I was only half way through it by the end of the week, mainly because for 3 days I never got the chance to go up there. By the beginning of the next week all the decorations had to be taken down, the related stock without sell by dates were to be taken upstairs, boxed and stored back up there ready for the following year. All the produce with sell by dates was to be moved to the sales area, which again fell to me make the space.
At the Friday morning meeting the boss had asked "how the packing etc was getting on," when some idiot said " not very well, I think it needs maybe 2 hours tonight and if that doesn't do it, maybe a couple more on Saturday."
[The boss} "Great idea JJ, you can work for 2 extra hours after we close at 7 and if you don't finish, come in Sunday at 4 when we close to finish off, definitely not a Saturday job though. That's settled then, anything else, no good."
Yes I was the idiot.
Off he went, as normal the meeting as he called it, lasted all of 5 minutes, which was always the same, get the store tidied and shelves fully stocked for the weekend, if there were any changes to the weekly deliveries, make new arrangements.
That Friday night was when I discovered that from the slatted air vents in all the sides of the building, which I had opened earlier in the day to get some air flow, as it was always very warm up there, I saw you could see into the back gardens of the houses at either side, and into the front gardens of the homes opposite, the car park at both sides, the rear just looked over the fields.
What I found when I went to close them, was I could also see straight into the front bedrooms of the houses opposite, there was a woman stood in a robe, she was picking out dresses from her wardrobe, looking at them and shaking her head and putting them back. I was transfixed, she eventually found one she liked took off her robe and put it on. I got to see her in her underwear, why she hadn't closed the curtains I had no idea, maybe it was because she hadn't needed to put the light on, but I was glad she hadn't, cheap thrill yes, but I was happy. I shut the vent and went to close the others at the back, nothing to be seen there just the fields and the same at sides just the gardens.
I went home mighty pleased with myself, it didn't beat looking at porn on the internet, but this was live and I found it exciting. It had never occurred to me to spy on anyone, watching the voyeur stuff on the internet didn't excite me that much, the dogging was good though.
Now I formulating ideas, what would I see when it was dark, what time did it get dark, would I be at work, what could I see from the farmers track that ran along the back of the houses, what could I see from mum and dad bedroom.
Saturday afternoon I went for a walk down the track with our dog, not the usual route, I usually went down the road. It was a mixture of fences, a few had high ones with gates, some had low ones, a few with trees or hedges, some had nothing you could just walk in.
It was also used by other people walking their dogs, due the amount of paw prints I could see, but I didn't see any other dog walkers that day.
What surprised me was it came out at the back of the church, so you could walk all the way down the hill from the side of the garden centre to virtually the middle of town centre, much better walking for the dog.
I decided to make another trip later that night. I saw a few lights go on but the curtains also got closed, or a light was already on but again closed curtains. I even wandered up to the back of our house, even though I knew most had high fences just to see where it went, there wasn't a track at this side, it was all overgrown with weeds. The only garden you could see into was my old history teachers, she was single and in her forties and didn't like me, mainly because of the grades I got, I had no interest the subject so I didn't try, I even told her that in one of the detentions she gave me, she still didn't speak to me now 4 years on.
To get people used to seeing me down there, I started walking the dog down there twice a day, once in a morning before work and then again I late on, just before dark I never got much success in seeing anybody naked but the prospect was exciting especially when a light went on, even if nothing came of it. I even started doing a bit of jogging down there to the church then back up the road, not every night but quite often, no luck there either.
It was late summer, I had been painting the back fence, a job that Dad was meant to do before going back to sea, but he had never got round to it. So it fell on me to do it. I had done the inside and gone round to do the back of the fence, when walking past Ms Atkinson's I saw her in the garden in a bikini, she was stacked and fit, who the hell would have known that, she was always thought of as an plump old maid at school, by the way she dressed. She had kept that well hidden, when she turned round to walk back to her yard, she had a bloody thong on, I could see her firm arse cheeks, I could have been watching her all bloody summer instead of jogging the other way.
This started a new train of thought, could I get nearer to see her close up, I would have to be in next doors garden to do that, there was the fence between the houses, was it like ours, completely hole free. After checking to see if my neighbours were in, which was easy because if the car wasn't there, they were both out, you never saw them apart. I went into their backyard, the fence was full of holes, the bottom was rotten, looked like it should have replaced years ago. You could see into her yard as well as the living room and the kitchen, but what I didn't know for certain was if I could see her, could she see me.
On the pretext of seeing if I could catch her in the garden, I told my mum the fence needed another coat round the back so I would do it after work, one day next week,. Monday nothing, same Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday but on Friday she was in the garden dressed in a pair of shorts on and a bikini top, from my vantage point I could easily watch her, so I quickly got all the painting stuff ready, put on my overall and took it round there. I had already decided that painting the edge of the fence near her garden would let me watch her through my neighbours garden and if she saw me I could just carry on like I was painting. I had only just opened the tin and dipped the brush in, when I looked up she was coming towards me, down the track.
{Ms Atkinson]"Oh its you I wondered who it was hanging around there, what are you doing?"
[Me]"Just finishing off the painting of the fence Ms Anderson," I remembered she hated to be called Mrs. She even carried on right up to me to check it out.
