I was at the town centre doing my grocery shopping, and after half an hour, I emerged with two bags full of groceries. I suddenly remembered I had to post something, so I walked towards the post office, which was at the other end of the town centre.
It was a nice and warm spring day, and I was happily walking, with my mp3 player plugged into my ears and totally oblivious to my surroundings. As I walked past HSBC, I suddenly heard a man's voice going "I love the sunshine!" It was rather high pitched and yet hoarse, which was a strange combination.
I looked up, and I saw this full grown man who was half naked, hopping forward on two feet like an Easter bunny. He had his two arms raised, like he was taking in the sun. He also had a strange haircut, short and fuzzy, which gave his head a circular shape. It was the kind of haircut usually seen on kids.
Thinking he was probably not quite right up there, I looked down and walked on. I was trying to keep a low profile, because the last thing I wanted was to elicit unwanted attention when I had two bags of groceries. I mean, if something happened I could drop them and run, but it was 20 pounds worth of stuff and I didn't really want to do that.
So I walked past him, and suddenly I heard a voice from behind. It was from that man. I recognized it because I had just heard his voice earlier. I couldn't hear clearly what he was saying, but somehow, I knew he was trying to get my attention. A chord of dread struck my heart, but just to be sure, I took out my earphones.
Sure enough, he was calling me. He was going "Hey brother! Hey brother! What are you listening to?" There wasn't any other guy within 10 metres so it had to be me.
I turned around like really slowly, and he walked up to me. He towered over me, which meant he was easily over 6 feet tall. As he stood in front of me I noticed his eyes were greyish and kind of glazed, which did nothing to dispel my initial suspicions that he was a bit loony.
I was really very thankful that at that point that my mp3 player was playing some of the heaviest stuff I have on my playlist. The last thing I would have wanted at that point, as a chinese guy being accosted by a possibly crazy white guy, was to let him know I listen to "Girlfriend" by Avril Lavigne.
But anyway, I had to answer his question, so I told him "Rage Against The Machines". He didn't know what band that was, so he grabbed my earphones and plugged them in, and started bobbing to the beat. It was an extremely awkward moment, because I was so close to this half naked guy who was bobbing in front of me, and I couldn't move away because he had my earphones on and I had to hold on to my mp3 player.
As he listened, he kept going "Ah, heavy. Heavy." Then he did some air guitaring in front of me, before proceeding to go "Heavy. Heavy" again. I nodded and replied "Yeah heavy."
After about 10 of the longest seconds of my life, he handed my earphones back to me, a newfound respect in his eyes. He offered me his hand for a handshake. I couldn't help but notice his hands were huge. Like the whole of my hand fit just into the palm of his. But I took his hand anyway and gave as firm a handshake as I could. I figured I couldn't show him I was scared of him, or he might not take it nicely. He waved goodbye, and I must say I'd never been more glad to get away from somebody. Sure he was friendly enough, but nobody appreciates being approached by half naked strangers.