This Old Man

part two

This old man, saw him twice, this time next to the playground. And then he looked up, and our eyes met. How odd is this coincidence?

~~~~~~

As you could probably imagine, I disregarded that day and pushed it to the deepest corners of my mind.

Yes, the old man's gaze upon me left me on edge for the next two days, but I finally grew out of my paranoid ways and moved on.

Or at least I tried to.

It was a dreary Saturday, so I decided to take my little brother to the playground in our neighborhood. You know, so he'd get his head out of his ass and not watch TV all day long. He was enjoying himself with some friends. I made sure to scream at him every five minutes or so, so he wouldn't go off doing any acrobatic stunts or wander far from my eyesight.

I know, I sound like a mom. I don't care! I am very paranoid, and I accept that. I must admit my paranoia sometimes plays tricks on me but believe me when I say: I wasn't being paranoid when I saw the old man again.

I couldn't believe my eyes, and I couldn't take them from his figure. And then he looked up, and our eyes met.

He looked at me, and I looked at him. Not being able to continue this stare-off any longer I drifted my gaze in search of my little brother. Thank goodness he was safely playing on the slides with his friends.

I decided to shrug the old man as a mere coincidence. After all, he could have a grandchild he could have been looking after.

He had been sitting across me, on the other side of the playground. But when I looked to where he was, he was gone. I looked around, and there was no trace of him or anything.

My brother refused to leave, so I told him we were going to grab some pizza for lunch. That seemed to do the trick, so we left the park, got in my car and drove to the mall.