The Man of Many Hats

Chapter 1

I was sitting on the train. Sleeping. I didn't know it would be like this. So useless. So unneeded. Why me? May I ask? What is the reason for anything? I don't know nor will I ever.

He stared at me. The man across the bus. Dark sunglasses, a frown, and a large white hat. I awoke to the sound of the un-translatable voice of the train's conductor. I guess it was time to leave.

I was stopped by a large, tattooed, muscular man. He was asking for money, I guess. I told him I was broke. He started after me when I ran, but the man in the hat stopped him. I saw he was talking. I turned to head home.

I walked down the street. My hoodie turned up. Two small white earbuds in my ears. My dark black hair pushed in my eyes. I got in a taxi cab. I gave the cabbie the money I lied about not having. The man looked familiar. He was wearing dark sunglasses and a cabby hat. He was frowning. It was the man from the train.

I fell asleep when I was heading home. I had nightmares. All about one thing. The man.

"Wake up, Kid!"

It was a different voice. I got up. I walked to my house. 543A Walden Street. I unlocked the door.

I looked at the clock. It read half past midnight. I heard someone coming down the steps. It was my mom with a baseball bat.

"Richard Telis! You scared the living daylights out of me, young man!"

"Mom, I'm not a kid anymore. I'm eighteen!"

"Why didn't you call!?"

"I did! I'm going to bed!"

She noticed my bright blue eyes looked more alarmed than usual.

"Are you okay, Richie?"

"I'm fine, mom!"

"You look scared."

"Good night, mom!"

I woke up in the morning. I went downstairs and got breakfast. My jet black hair hugged my face with sweat. My blue eyes were wide with fright. My pale white hands shook. My teeth chattered but after all we were in the middle of winter. I was afraid, and my mom noticed.

"What's wrong, Rich?''

"Nothing, mom."

My sister was texting. She was a typical sixteen year old. She looked up and said,

"He's lying, mom."

I mouthed shut up. She returned it with a smirk.

"Seriously, what's wrong?" my mom asked.

"Mom, nothing is wrong. I just had a bad dream. That's it."

"I've gotta go. My friend said he would meet me at the square."

Anything to get out of the house.

"Sure," she said.

I took a walk down the road. I saw a man wearing a beanie. He was wearing dark sunglasses. It was him. I stopped him.

"Thanks for helping me last night."

"Who are you, kid?"

It was a different man. I was going mad.

"Sorry. I thought you were someone else."

The man was bald. Wearing no hat or sunglasses. He was overweight and wearing a fluffy jacket. I walked away.

I went into a public restroom. I looked at myself in the mirror. I was shaking. It was cold but that wasn't it. I left.

I walked down the street and called my friend, Robert.

"Hey man."

"Hey, is everything okay?"

"What?"

"Are you okay?"

"Uh... yeah?"

"Your mom just called me wondering where you were."

"Why?"

"I dunno."

"Meet me at the house."

"Okay... See ya."

I hung up and ran home.

My mom saw me through the window. She was afraid. She had a cloth tied around her mouth. A man in a Jamaican hat looked through the window and stared at me. The same way the man had done when I first came in contact with him on the train. I ran inside.

I was terrified. Noone was there. My mom wasn't tied up nor was the man there. My mom came down the stairs.

"Richard, where have you been?"

"In the park." I said gasping for breath.

"What's wrong Rich? Tell me the truth."

I explained.

My mom took me to a guidance counselour the next day. Hours and hours of lying on a hard couch listening to a man talk about how there is no man in the hat. Then something terrible happened. I saw the man. Right in front of me. Wearing a fedora. It was the counselour.