Tonight-is-Friday-September-1st

Tonight-is-Friday-September-1st is Anna Klos’ first piece for Cult of Americana

Tonight is Friday, September 1, 2017. I was followed home from my usual walk from the California Blue Line L station almost all the way to my house. On the L ride home, this stranger had pestered me with normal street harassment questions like “Hey, what’s your name?” and “Do you have a boyfriend?” and “Why aren’t you talking to me? You don’t even want to get to know me?” as if I owed it to him to give him the time of day which, at that point, was 1:30am and that made everything about 10 times creepier than the normal occasional heckle I get at 4:30pm commuting in to work.

I was a block from my house when he caught up to me. I was walking quickly and I assumed he was just some person walking home too, until I heard his feet speed up. Have you heard that sound before and felt your heart speed up way too fast? Your step gets quicker, almost as if you’re about to start sprinting at any second. You can feel the energy of the other person behind you, like a terrifying heat that sends prickles flashing in waves all over your skin.

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Chicago: How to Get the Coasts to Really Respect You

Stop reading here. If you feel coastal cities like NYC and LA don’t give Chicago the equal respect it deserves, and you want to change this, then stop reading this article immediately, and simply let it go.

But you see, the fact that you won’t—the fact that you’ll keep reading hungrily on to the end to find the answer—reveals precisely the problem.

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