I had just moved to Chicago for graduate school and bought an apartment. I didn't know anyone in the building, or in the city for that matter. So much of my time outside of class was spent in my apartment alone. One night I was coming back from getting some Chinese take-out when I saw my next-door neighbor standing in her doorway with some man. She kissed him goodbye and he walked down the hall past me. I figured he was her boyfriend and I said hi to him as he walked by. I looked at my neighbor still standing in her doorway. She was wearing a matching pink bra, panties, and garters. She was beautiful – average height, but way above average everything else. Long dark brown hair and piercing green eyes. Very exotic. I said hi to her, in an almost whisper, as I came to my door. I took out my keys and tried to open the door. I fumbled with my keys for a while because her standing there was making me very nervous. Eventually she went back into her apartment and shut her door. I let my head hit my door and sighed in embarrassment. I looked like such an idiot. I finally let myself in successfully and spent another night alone with the TV.
Two nights later I was taking my trash to the shoot. When I got back to my apartment I saw my neighbor standing in her doorway with her boyfriend again. She kissed him and he turned around to leave. I stopped in mid-step when I realized it was a different guy. I looked at the guy, then just kind of stared at my neighbor. She was standing in her doorway with black lingerie on this time, only with a sheer covering that came a little past her hips. When I realized I was staring at her, I immediately looked down because I knew it was none of my business if she was cheating on her boyfriend.
"You should take a picture. It would last longer," she said.
"What?" I looked up in shock that she had spoken to me.
"You know, you have no right to judge me. You don't know me and the shit I have to deal with."
"What? I wasn't judging– anything," I said very confused.
"Yeah right. I know exactly what you think of me. You think I'm a slut, right?" I shook my head no, but she ignored it. "You know what, maybe you're right. Maybe I am. But this is my job and it pays good money. I don't always like the stuff I have to do, but it's a living. So until you've lived my life, you have no right to criticize mine." She went into her apartment and slammed her door.
I stood in the hallway for a bit longer, still kind of confused of what the hell had just happened. Then it hit me – she was an escort. I felt really bad for making her think I was labeling her. Shit, I didn't even realize what we were talking about!
I saw her a few times over the next several days, but we said nothing to each other. I could feel her glaring at me though. She hated me because I had offended her in my ignorance. It wasn't fair, but what could I do? She already had her mind made up about me. One night I was typing a paper on my computer and I could hear noises coming from her apartment. I heard what sounded like screaming and some sort of thudding noise, but I just figured it was one of her weird sexual acts that she performed with her customers. I rolled my eyes and continued working, trying to tune them out. Then I heard something that I wasn't expecting.
"STOP! PLEASE!" I heard my neighbor scream.
I looked toward the wall that our two apartments shared in shock and walked closer to it to listen more carefully and make sure my ears weren't deceiving me.
"Please stop Gary!" I could hear the tears in her voice.
"SHUTUP!" The man said. "Keep crying and I'll cut you up even more!"
I couldn't believe it, I had to do something. I was about to call 911 but I knew it would take them too long to get there. She could be killed by then. I picked up my souvenir Cubs baseball bat and walked towards her room. I was terrified of what would happen, he could kill me too. But I had to try. I twisted her doorknob and it was unlocked so I walked back toward her bedroom as quietly as I could. I walked in and the lights were off, but the light from the hallway gave me enough light to see. When I could finally see what he was doing, I saw that he was holding a knife up to her neck and digging his knee into her ribs. One of her ears was bleeding very badly. She was crying and he continued to yell at her. She saw me above his shoulder and stopped crying for a second and just stared at me. He put more pressure on the knife on her neck and she closed her eyes and screamed. I pulled the bat above my head and swung down on his head as hard as I could. It knocked him unconscious. I hit him once more in the head just to be sure. She sat up on the bed and stared down at his unconscious body. I stuck my hand out to her to help her off the bed. She just looked back at me in shock at what had just happened.
"Come on!" I said to her.
She took my hand and got off of the bed. I took her to my apartment and began to call the police.
"What are you doing?" She asked.
"Calling 911."
"You can't!"
"What!?"
"They'll arrest me if they find out I'm a hooker."
"You're an escort, not a hooker."
"What do you think an escort is? It's just a fancy name for hooker."
"Not always. But look, we don't tell them that. We just say – he's some guy you met at a bar or something and he went crazy." She didn't say anything. "If we don't, who knows what could happen? He could come back and try to hurt you again."
She nodded, "Ok. Call."
I called the police and told them what happened. They said they would be there shortly. I told her what they said and she said okay. I then realized she was completely naked and became very nervous.
"I am so sorry." I looked down and tried to think of something to say. "I didn't realize you were, um-"
"It's okay. It's really not a big worry right now," she kind of laughed.
I looked up into her eyes and then back at the ground quickly. "Let me um, get you some clothes. I walked into my room and brought her back a t-shirt and shorts. When I handed them to her I saw just how bad her ear was.
"Oh my gosh." I said.
"That bad?" She looked at me worried.
"Um, it's a little bad." That was an understatement. I remembered the guy in her apartment just then and went to make sure he was still in there. I saw him still laying on the floor, so I closed her apartment door to make sure I'd hear if he tried to leave. I went back into my apartment and saw her sitting on the sofa in my clothes. She was sitting with her face in her hands, crying. I sat down beside her and rubbed her back.
"It's okay now."
She looked up at me and said, "Thank you."
"It's nothing," I said. We stared at each other for a while, then I remembered her ear. "Oh, let me get something for this."
I walked into the bathroom and got some peroxide and cotton balls for cleanup. I came back out and sat back on the coffee table across from her.
"This might sting a little bit," I said before dabbing the peroxide on.
"I think I'll survive it."
I chuckled, then began cleaning off her ear. She grimaced from the burn. "Ah, sorry," I said. I blew on her ear and tried to fan it to cool it down. I continued cleaning it off and once I got through the layer of blood, I saw just how bad the cut was. He had sliced the top of her ear. "Damn, I think you're going to have to get stitches."
"Yea, probably so. I think he broke a rib too," she said, holding her stomach.
She had a black eye and other cuts on her face. "We should put some pressure on your ear at least," I said.
I gave her a towel for her ear and got some ice for her eye. She layed down on the sofa and I sat down in front of her on the sofa. She held the towel on her ear and I held the ice on her eye.
"I really don't know if ice helps a black eye, but it seemed like what you should do."
She just laughed in response.
A moment later the police finally got there. We told them the - she met him at a bar story, and we got away with it without too many questions asked. They took him away in handcuffs and the paramedics looked at my neighbor's injuries. They decided to take her to the hospital, so I said bye to her at the ambulance. She thanked me again and was gone.
Two days later I had a knock on my door. It was her.
"Hi," she said with a smile.
"Hey," I said, a little surprised to see her.
