I Blog Poetry and Prose

Strange Encounters With Strangers

Jalál (Glory), 10 Mashíyyat (Will) 175 B.E. - Saturday, October 6, 2018

FORUM

30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS  (13+) WDC's Longest Running Blog Competition - Hiatus #1786069 by Fivesixer

Prompt: Write about a memorable encounter with a stranger.

Strange Encounters
and Encounters With Strangers

Over the past several decades, I have had numerous strange encounters, encounters with strangers, and strange encounters with strangers. I remember once, several years ago, around Halloween. I was going home, and since I didn't have a car, I was riding the city bus. The bus, going east on Charleston Avenue, made a stop and picked up several passengers. One of them appeared to be a bit inebriated, but not belligerent, so the bus driver let him board the bus. He took the empty seat beside me, and, after the bus begin moving, he started to sing Christmas songs. He was obviously a happy drunk, which isn't a reason to get kicked off the bus. The rest of the passengers, along with me, just smile at man's choice of songs given the time of years.

Another odd encounter at a bus stop occurred when I was taking the Boulder Highway bus to Henderson. I was at the bust stop in front of the Showboat Hotel and Casino (now a vacant lot), when a man come up and asked, all the waiting passengers, if they wanted to buy medication. He didn't say if he was selling prescription or non-prescription pain medication or some other type of medication. None of us wanted to purchase whatever type of medication he was selling, but we did laugh after he left. The reason we laughed is because the guy was either an undercover cop looking for an arrest or desperate for money. If he was desperate for money, he wasn't thinking straight because any one of us could have been an undercover cop, in which case he would have been arrested as soon as the deal was done.