An encounter with a strange character.

A STRANGE CHARACTER

One look at him and anyone can see that he is not an ordinary man. There is an air about him that seems to drive people away from him. He is one of the oldest residents in the area, at least 70 years old but healthy and energetic. No one had ever seen him visiting anyone or receiving visitors. He is unpredictable in his movements. He has no fixed times unlike the rest of us. He takes walks at odd times, like in the mid-afternoon or in the middle of the night. He looks and acts just like a spooky character in a horror novel.

He is often seen smiling and talking to himself. People have even seen him laughing aloud as if laughing at some joke that he had played on himself. He dresses in black, as if in perpetual mourning. The elders whisper that he has lost someone dear to him in younger days and had not quite recovered from it.

Like the rest of the children in the neighbourhood, I avoided him. There was no special reason for this; just fear of the unknown. In fact so afraid was I of him that I even crossed the road to avoid him. But all my fears disappeared after my encounter with him.

On night I was coming home at nearly midnight after a scout campfire when I met him face to face, of all places, in the park. It was bright as the moon was up but so late that even the courting couples had gone home; and there was the last man in the world that I ever wanted to meet.

My heart beat very fast and I was on my guard; ready to run at the slightest threat to my precious life. But as it turned out, nothing of the kind happened. “What’s the time young man?” he asked suddenly, taking me completely by surprise. “Mid-night, sir,” I answered glancing quickly at my watch. He nodded and said something about it being a lovely night and turned to go. Perhaps because he spoke to me, my fear gave way to curiosity. I was seized with a desire to know what he was doing there in the middle of the night. Taking all my courage in hand I ventured to ask what he was doing there so late at night. He thought for a while and then answered, “Waiting for her.”

“Who?” I asked recklessly.

“The most beautiful woman in the world,” he answered with a long sigh. “I lost her fifty years ago and she comes to visit me every night. I come to this park, where we used to sit and talk for hours. Her father separated us and she killed herself,” he said sadly. I felt a chill run through me and began to shift uncomfortably.

“Don’t worry, my boy, she is harmless. Not all ghosts haunt people. My Mabel is not one of those. She just misses me as much as I miss her, so she comes back to talk to me,” he said and then started to chuckle softly. ”Better go home now,” he said kindly.

As I walked I felt a heaviness in my heart. “How much he must love her if he feels so much for her fifty years after she died,” I thought. Then something I read came to my mind:

‘Only five percent of the human race will ever find true love.’

I turned to look at him once more and saw him. Jooking up intently at the moon. Then I turned and hurried home deep in thought.

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