strange occurrence
(...)
Are you sure you want to find out? – I ask playfully in a lowered voice. Still giving him one last chance, feeling in a surprisingly gracious mood today.
Always ready for someone like you – he answers in a husky tone, everything about him flirtatious and open for the fun. Well, that was all of the encouragement I needed.
My body weight shifts forward. Muscles tensing with enthusiasm. I’ve been waiting for an excuse to do some exercise. Lately it’s been nothing more but complains.
Behave yourself, don’t attack anyone, focus on the assignment… honestly, just nag, nag, nag. Lately I felt harassed 24/7. I deserved some fun. And let’s face it, he started it… hmm, other people were such an easy entertainment sometimes. Like they were looking forward in keeping me amused and pleased. How nice of them.
***
An older man was walking in the middle of the sidewalk, slowly moving forward, his weight shifted to his left side, his body supported by a wooden cane.
Grunting quietly with every step, but seemed pleased to be outside and not in his small, grubby apartment. He took his time, his eyes lazily darting from building to building, all of the sights known and familiar for years.
As the man walks on, he can feel something changing; a sort of tension in the air, the wind blowing from a different direction. He lifts his head and looks up at the street ahead, yet there’s nothing there, so he looks at the alley a little further away.
He stares with eyes widened from the growing shock. In the distance, a small unidentified shape fly’s through the sky. Which wouldn’t be as surprising – people throw away the oddest things - if the strange shape didn’t scream so loudly... and didn’t flutter his hands and legs so much...The shape (which was definitely a person) starts with an ear-piercing scream, floats in the air for a short moment, making a spectacular arc in the process, then lands with a low thud in the nearest dumpster, that’s overflowing with garbage bags.
For a moment the air is filled only with silence and faint traffic noises in the distance - then the container springs into life, the person inside screaming with even more force than before - just this time it’s cursing rather than cries of help - while trying to get out at the same time… shifting his body over the edge and falling on the ground.
He then quickly gets up – while limping and jumping simultaneously, probably trying to gain some speed - and then clumsily sprints in the opposite direction,
as if the whole Hell was chasing him…
well, maybe it was.
The old man blinks a couple of times, not really believing his own eyes and decides to take the doctors offer for the new pill prescription he was offered just a week ago…
because the herbal tea was definitely not doing its job.
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