LOOKING BUT NOT SEEING

The old man sat down on his sofa like he did every day at the same time. He turned on his old TV and changed to channel five. There was a lady broadcasting the next day weather. The old man didn't like the pretentious weather woman – that's what he called her, because she was always standing in the middle of clouds, waving her arms, acting smart.

He puffed at the sight of her and said: "There you are," with a grumpy voice, "same time every day and what do you know about weather. Yesterday you told me that it was going to be sunny today, so there I was in my garden, snipping away my bushes, when a storm fell on my head!" He yelled at TV.

The old man went on muttering gibberish, when suddenly, a loud knock came at his door.

"Who is it?" He yapped annoyingly and stood up against his will. "If you're here to sell me new water pipes, mine are just fine!" And he opened the door, revealing two young men.

His eyes made two suspicious lines that went up and down on these too good-looking men. Nice shoes check, slim jackets check, a fresh haircut check and big, white smiles? All of those things made the old men very suspicious indeed. He did not trust them, not one bit and even if they didn't have anything with them that would propose that they were here to sell him something, there was something too ... too nice about them, and he did not like it!

"What do you want," he asked hoarsely.

"Good evening sir, we were just –"

"Here to sell me something? Well I don't want it!"

The gentleman that was speaking, lost his smile for a bit, but kindly continued: "No sir," he started with a short laugh.

"Something funny?" the old man barked.

Two gentlemen looked at each other kindly and the other one continued: "If this is a bad timing sir, we can surely come some other time."

"No need!" hurried the old man, "I'm just fine!" and slammed the door.

Then he rushed to the living room window and peeked behind the curtains. The strange men that were standing at his doorstep, clearly plotting something, were closing his fence door and slowly leaving down the street.

"Yea you better leave and don't you come back," he muttered to himself and felt quite good about it.

Just as he wanted to pull the curtains back together, a smudge of blue crossed his eyes. He flinched back at the window and put his glasses - which were hanging down his neck -, on his nose and looked carefully. What he saw was just what he feared. That damned, stealing, stupid, smelly, old bird was back eating his tomatoes.

"Shoo you devil stealing creature!" he slammed at the window.

The bird didn't mind him, in fact, it did not notice the old man barking from the inside of the house at all. The ripe tomato was so juicy and sweet, that his other senses blurred for a while.

"Go away!" he kept on hitting the glass, making smudges that will need cleaning.

And if that wasn't enough, just as the bird flew away, big, white cat came strolling along. It walked slowly through the old man's garden, carrying something in its mouth. Maybe it was a dead rat, or maybe it was a ripe peach that the old man was saving for himself.

He felt a high rush up his head and for a second or two, had the urge to chase that sorry little paw stealing fleabag, and feed it to the neighbour's dog!

But the old man did nothing of course, but grumpily stood at the window, waiting for the intruder to leave his property and when he was absolutely sure there were no uninvited visitors left, he returned to his sofa and muttered some more to the TV.

That same day, a news reporter had a very important task to make. She was to warn citizens of a small town, where mostly elderly folk lived, that they were to expect flooding in the next couple of days. If they had basements under their house or a garden that they cared for, they should take precautions in stacking the sand bags, to prevent water entering their grounds.

At the same time the weather news were on, a couple that moved in a new house, decided to meet their neighbours. They were very happy to introduce themselves as the new next door neighbours. Also they thought, that it would be nice to first visit an elderly man that they saw earlier that day in his garden. They wanted to offer their help to tend his bushes as they were very crafty with that.

When the two men left the old man's house – a little disappointed, but still with a good heart intentions –, a bird landed on a bamboo stick that was supporting a tomato plant, filling its beak with sweet red meat for its hungry hatchlings. It sensed that the storm was coming, so it had to make sure its nest was provided for.

And when the bird went on to take care of its young family, a stray cat walked through the garden, searching for a new shelter, because its owners just abandoned it minutes ago, leaving it by the side of the road.

The old man saw everything wrong that day, because he decided what to think, before he even looked closely. Are you looking through wrong eyes too?