When Does Weird Cross The Line?

April 10, 2011 at 6:24 pm · Filed under Mostly true, Random Thoughts, Stories, Weird stuff ·Tagged author, Be Still.... and know that I am God, Charles L. Mashburn, crossing the line, funny, humor, kid pulling a shoe, maybe someone should call the authorities, Pennies From Heaven, story, Weird stuff, when does weird cross the line, writer

I know this will sound strange—especially since it’s coming from me—but when does weird cross the line?

Yesterday, I was walking the dog, pretty much minding my own business, and here comes this kid walking down the sidewalk toward me… pulling a shoe. Yep. This young fella was probably ten or eleven years old—normal-looking, nice-looking young man—and he had a rope tied to a shoe, and he was dragging the shoe along behind him. The shoe was flopping and bouncing around, and it was, to say the least, a comical sight.

I smiled at him and said, as if I saw such sights every day, “Walkin’ your shoe?”

“Yep,” was all the answer I received; no smile; no look of don’t-be-a-smart-ass-old-man; just yep, and he walked on by.

I had to laugh, as myriad thoughts went through my mind, trying to figure what the boy was up to. It was, after all, something I might have done when I was his age. Hell I might’ve even done it now, if I’d thought of it first.

Anyway, I forgot about it—didn’t even remember to tell Sherry—and probably would have never given it another thought. If… I hadn’t seen him again today.

Sure enough, I was walking the dog this afternoon, and here comes the same kid, pulling, what I assume was, the same shoe. He paid no attention to me this time, and I asked no questions. I did, however, turn and watch him go on down the sidewalk, the shoe bouncing—quite happily, I thought—along behind him.

That’s when the question hit me: when does weird cross the line into – perhaps-someone-should-call-the-authorities?

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