Seedy Fellow

Creepy people are everywhere. Not that this surprises me or anything, but it just catches me off guard sometimes.

I work in a pretty little town by a lake, about 30 minutes from my home. 9 out of 10 people that live here are retired. They spend all their time pampering froofy little dogs and commissioning artists.

I know this because they walk said "dogs" by my window. They then continue to the coffee shop down the street, where I have some art. Thus, I end up painting little spoiled froofy dogs and kids. Rapture.

Anyhow, the other tenth of the population are flowing into and out of the courthouse. It's random people from all over the county. They come to get their various permits and licenses, or to pay tickets and whatnot.

Every once in a while I'll see someone out of the ordinary. Someone a little seedy. Usually they come from the police station, which is behind the courthouse.

Today just such a seedy fellow wandered by my window. I saw him notice me and decide to come in. Ugh. I quickly greeted him and asked how I could help him. He tossed a black garbage bag, full of unknown contents, onto the floor. He then told me he needed to use the telephone.

I know I could've told him no, but I'm nice. I'm also a huge weenie. I am very quickly intimidated and offer up whatever it is people request, in order to avoid conflict.

So, I dialed the number and gave him the receiver(which has now been amply disinfected). I wandered over to the copy machine and copied some letterhead. I managed to look pretty busy while dropping some eve.

He didn't come out and say it, but he eluded to the fact that he'd been in jail for three days. This phone call was apparently to wrangle someone into coming to pick him up. It sounded as if it was unsuccessful and he hung up all disgruntled-like.

It took what seemed like eons, but after seeing I wasn't offering anymore help, he decided to leave. I locked the door behind him as he left, Clorox wiped my phone, and went to chastise my coworker for leaving me up there all alone. Apparently, her plan was to hide out, and if he killed me she would call the police. I thanked her for her saintly plan.

I know it's a bit naive, but I usually assume that everyone's decent. I guess I just want to believe that. I do know better. Thanks to the crime channel I'm now silently paranoid about pretty much everyone. Especially if they carry black hefty bags around downtown.