My story starts on a Saturday last April, a month after my wife, Judy, and I had moved into our new home. Judy is a department manager in a large department store and often has to work nights and weekends.
This particular Saturday she had gone in at noon and had to work till 8:00 that evening. It was a beautiful spring day and I had decided to do some work around our yard. This was the first nice weekend we had since we moved in the house so it was the first chance I had to mow the lawn and clean up the debris from winter.
Our house is in a suburban area that was developed about ten years ago. All of the houses on our side of the street have large back yards that slant down away from the houses and end in a wooded area that starts about 200 feet back from the houses. Our house sits on the apex of a curve in the road and the backs of the other houses around us all angle slightly toward our property.
At the back of our lot there is a very large tree in which the previous owner had built a tree house. The tree house consisted of a platform about six feet by six feet which was at least twenty-five feet above the ground. There was a low wall around the outside of the platform (about two feet high) cut and trimmed to look like an old western fort. Access to the tree house was via a ladder built against the tree.
My wife and I don't have any children so I didn't have any immediate need for the tree house, but it looked well built and sturdy so I was reluctant to tear it down. I decided that I had better climb up into the tree house to make sure it was safe in case any of the neighborhood children climbed up into the tree house because if anyone got hurt I would be liable. As I climbed up the ladder I pulled hard on each rung to make sure they were strong enough to hold my weight. When I reached the platform I saw that it indeed was very well constructed. I didn't need to worry about it collapsing.
I hadn't realized how high up I was until I stood up on the platform and looked around. I was actually standing a little higher than the level of the second floors of the houses in the neighborhood. I had just decided that the structure was safe enough that I didn't have to worry about tearing it down for a while and I was getting ready to climb back down when I noticed that from where I was standing I could see into the bedroom windows of at least six houses including my own.
As I was swung my head around to look at each house individually I spotted movement in one of the windows. It was the bedroom window of the house that was two houses to the right of mine. Being that I was at least 200 feet away from the house and that it was a bright sunny day my view into the window was not very clear but I could make out that a woman was cleaning the bedroom. Although I couldn't clearly see her face I knew who it was. I had met her when we first moved in. Her name was Carla. She was my age, 25, and quite attractive. Actually the whole neighborhood was made up of couples in the mid twenties to mid thirties. I don't now why but I kept staring at Carla for a long while, then finally I decided I had better get down before someone saw me and began to wonder what I was doing up there.
After that I finished up my work and went into the house to shower and get something to eat. Later as I sat watching television I thought about seeing Carla and it made me think of an old fantasy of mine. When I was about twelve and just starting to get interested in girls I use to here some of the other boys talk about sneaking a peak at there sister when she was getting out of the shower or peeking in a neighbor's window and seeing the girl next door naked. As we got older the stories got bolder. I remembered stories about guys in high school climbing a tree outside a college sorority house and watching the girls take showers.
I don't know if any of those stories were true, but I had always wanted them to be and I had wanted to be one of the guys looking in on the naked girls. Now after all these years I was thinking about peeking again. I thought it would be so easy. I could just go up into the tree house after dark and watch the windows and see what I could see. Then I thought, "I can't do that." If I got caught it would be totally humiliating. I gave up the idea and concentrated on the movie I was watching.
Judy came home at 8:30 that evening and said that she was exhausted. She made herself a sandwich and joined me in front of the TV. By 9:15 Judy was beginning to fall asleep so I told her she should go up to bed and I would locked up and be up after I watched a movie I wanted to see. Judy went up to bed and I went into the kitchen and put her dish in the sink and took the trash out to the trashcan behind the house. When I walked outside I was amazed at how pleasant a night it was. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and there was no moon so I could see millions of stars.
I walked out into the yard and looked up at the sky again. I was just enjoying the beauty. As I looked back down I noticed that there were lights on in the bedrooms of four of the six houses. I suddenly thought of the tree house and turned to look at it. Funny thing was I couldn't see it. If I didn't know it was there I would never have spotted it. I decided right then that I had to try it. I had to see if I could catch any interesting activity in any of the houses.
I went back into my house and went up to my bedroom. I looked out the window just to be sure that the tree house couldn't be seen from inside the house then I went into my closet and got out a dark sweatshirt and went back downstairs. In the hall closet I found the powerful hunting binoculars I had purchased a couple of years earlier. I also found a navy blue baseball cap. I put on the sweatshirt and the cap and turned off the downstairs lights and slipped out the back door. I had a knot in my stomach but I was also excited. I listened to see if I could hear anyone outside. I heard nothing but the wind in the trees.