Post by Rictras Shard on May 29, 2015 21:51:40 GMT -4
Here is a tale from my past. Names have been changed to protect the guilty.
Everybody in town knew Jack, I think. He was a frail old guy who you would often see wandering the streets. As far as I know, he didn't have a home. He had a very distinctive look and was very thin.
About fifteen years ago on a bitterly cold winter night, Jack went to his brother's home and knocked on the door. Unfortunately the door was locked, and everyone who lived there were either gone or asleep. Jack laid down in the front yard and eventually froze to death. Everybody thought it was a shame, but had only been a matter of time. He hadn't looked healthy in a long time.
Two or three years later, I had been visiting a friend and went home well into the night. I was walking down the Confederation Trail, a provincial pathway that used to be train tracks until the early nineties. As is usually the case, I was looking at the ground, as people often drop money around these parts.
Whenever I came to a spot where the trail intersected with a road, I looked up to make sure I wasn't about to be run over. At one point when I looked up, I saw a guy standing on the trail up ahead. He looked like Jack.
I immediately told myself not to let my imagination run wild. It was dark, and my mind has always tended toward thoughts of the fantastic. When I got closer, surely I would see that this guy likely didn't look anything like Jack.
I resumed my normal walking pattern. About a minute later, I looked up as I passed him to reassure myself that my mind had been playing tricks on me.
If it wasn't Jack, it was his unknown twin brother. He had the same thin frame, the same haggard profile, even his posture was the same. He was standing there, facing away from me, unmoving.
Chills ran up and down my body. Instead of saying hello like I had intended, I increased my pace to the point where I was almost running. Everytime I looked back until he was no longer in sight, several minutes later, he was still standing in the exact same position.
It has been a number of years since that happened. Sitting now in the comfort and safety of my bedroom, I try to rationalize it, to convince myself there is no way I saw what I thought I was seeing. At the time, though I was completely certain I was an arm's length away from a dead man.
Everybody in town knew Jack, I think. He was a frail old guy who you would often see wandering the streets. As far as I know, he didn't have a home. He had a very distinctive look and was very thin.
About fifteen years ago on a bitterly cold winter night, Jack went to his brother's home and knocked on the door. Unfortunately the door was locked, and everyone who lived there were either gone or asleep. Jack laid down in the front yard and eventually froze to death. Everybody thought it was a shame, but had only been a matter of time. He hadn't looked healthy in a long time.
Two or three years later, I had been visiting a friend and went home well into the night. I was walking down the Confederation Trail, a provincial pathway that used to be train tracks until the early nineties. As is usually the case, I was looking at the ground, as people often drop money around these parts.
Whenever I came to a spot where the trail intersected with a road, I looked up to make sure I wasn't about to be run over. At one point when I looked up, I saw a guy standing on the trail up ahead. He looked like Jack.
I immediately told myself not to let my imagination run wild. It was dark, and my mind has always tended toward thoughts of the fantastic. When I got closer, surely I would see that this guy likely didn't look anything like Jack.
I resumed my normal walking pattern. About a minute later, I looked up as I passed him to reassure myself that my mind had been playing tricks on me.
If it wasn't Jack, it was his unknown twin brother. He had the same thin frame, the same haggard profile, even his posture was the same. He was standing there, facing away from me, unmoving.
Chills ran up and down my body. Instead of saying hello like I had intended, I increased my pace to the point where I was almost running. Everytime I looked back until he was no longer in sight, several minutes later, he was still standing in the exact same position.
It has been a number of years since that happened. Sitting now in the comfort and safety of my bedroom, I try to rationalize it, to convince myself there is no way I saw what I thought I was seeing. At the time, though I was completely certain I was an arm's length away from a dead man.