I had just turned 21 and frequented the bars regularly.

In hindsight, I probably spent too much time drinking with my friends.

I didn't have a car or a cell phone and I lived on the outskirts of town.

It was a 45 minute walk-down town.

The town I live in is generally a very safe place.

It is a wealthy, well-to-do community, so walking home alone at night after drinking

was nothing that bothered me, other than the actual walking.

It was a Tuesday night, and that meant pints were cheap.

So I wouldn't say I was completely wasted, but I certainly was more than tipsy.

Instead of walking home along the sidewalk where I feared I'd be picked up by the police

for being drunk in public, I decided to take the bike path that ran along the train tracks.

This meant the walk would take longer, but much safer, and less likely I would run into

any sort of trouble.

The bike path was not very lit, and knowing what I know now, I should have been a lot more

nervous about walking alone in the complete darkness at two in the morning.

Like I said, I had just turned 21 and was certainly an arrogant young male who was thinking

about women and not minding my surroundings.

I had taken this path many nights and coming across anybody else was rare.

If I did perchance come across somebody this late at night, most of the time it was just

another drunk college student who had the same thoughts as me.

Either that or they were homeless, but if so, I would say they were all homeless.

So this night as I'm walking, I noticed further down the path was somebody walking towards

...