It’s such a nice day that I decided to walk to the market for a dose of sunshine and exercise; not that I took the chance to enjoy my surroundings. As usual, I had my eyes on my smart phone, texting with my boyfriend. As a matter of fact, that is his biggest complaint about me; that I don’t pay attention and live in the moment.
Walking along with my eyes cast down, I ran smack into a young guy in a rock concert t-shirt and jeans. My vision blacked out and I felt like I was falling through the ground but then I blinked and the world was back. The guy mumbled an apology but as he turned away from me, I heard “idiot needs to watch where she’s going”. I turned to deliver a zinger to him but saw the way he was shaking his head and gazing around himself and thought better of it. He was obviously a little “off”.
I shook the incident off and continued on my way but soon, I realized that something had changed.
From the woman who passed me on the right, “what is she thinking wearing that shirt with those pants?!”
“Nice ass, chickie” from the creepy old guy sitting on the bench to the left.
Here’s the thing though; while these people were looking at me, their lips weren’t moving! How could this be possible? It’s like I was reading their thoughts….
Every time I caught someone’s eye, I “heard” what they thought about me but not any of their other thoughts. When I stopped at my favourite café for a coffee-to-go, the server who always flirts with me thought about how he would like to ask me out and his co-worker thought about how she would like to chase me out so that she could have her hunky co-worker’s attention for herself.
When I stopped at the butcher shop for steaks, I heard him think he would offer me the less fresh cuts because “the dumb broad” wouldn’t know any better. I showed him! The look of surprise on his face was almost comical.
It’s truly amazing what hides behind people’s smiles. These kind of things kept happening everywhere I went.
Finally, my curiosity got the better of me. I went to my boyfriend’s place a few blocks away. When I knocked on his door, he opened it looking flustered. “Wow, she never surprises me like this; it’s a good thing Tara left early for the gym!” Well, there it was. I knew he had been hiding something.
I told him to have a good life with Tara and walked away. Yet another comical facial expression….
I was so distracted with thoughts of that rat that I didn’t see the elderly woman until I had already bumped into her. My vision blacked out again, I felt a lurch and, just like that, the voices that I had been hearing for the last two hours were gone. I tested it by stopping to buy a newspaper.
Silence.
What did I do next? Well, I decided that I could use another coffee. I have to sign off now since I need to get ready for my date tonight with a certain hunky barista
Thank you Betsy :)
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