I was sitting by the pool side. My mind lost in an ebook. The pixel where bringing me to a different world.
I needed the escape. My kids were at their swimming lessons. I had thirty minutes that I didn't want to waste, and going further in the land of nevermore was the best thing to do. Some people may think that reading is a waste of time, but not me. I relish the books. I can spend more time with with my imaginary friends.
I wasn't finished the first paragraph that a man walks in front of me. He was loud. Not noisy loud, but a loud that you can feel within your bones. I could feel his presence over the words of my book.
He sat down not too far from me, but far enough that he wouldn't bother me. But that didn't last long. I guess he wasn't comfortable on that side of the concrete bench because he asked me if he could sit beside me. We were about ten parents for about 50 feet of sitting surface.
"Yeah," I said. I had to move my kids towels on me for him to be able to sit closer.
I went back to my book, and tried to ignore him.
"These events are crazy," he said.
"What," I said. My brain didn't register what he had said. My annoyance raised a full level.
"These events are crazy. It's like being at an airport trying to catch a flight," he said.
"Yes, it's go go go and sit," I mumbled.
"Yes, it's go go go and sit," I said again.
I went straight back in my book. With a movement of my phone, I made sure that he could see that I wasn't on social media, and that in fact, I was reading a book.
"Oooh baby, baby it's a wild world," he sang.
"Okay, he's got good taste in music. Alright, where was I," I thought to myself.
He opened his red sport bag that he had brought with him, and started taking things out of it. I tried to ignore it, and for some reason it was hard. I reread the same paragraph twice.
"Oooh baby, baby it's a wild world," he sang once more.
I thought that he must have earphones on and the song Wild World was playing. I lifted my eyes on second and look past him and saw that he didn't have earphones on.
"Okay, he's annoying," I said to myself. I go back to my book.
Now, he started folding the clothes that he had in his sport's bag. And he uttered the same lyrics a couple of more times.
It's pretty noisy when you sit by the pool, and this guy was louder than the kids screaming in the pool. He wasn't off key at least.
He packs his back with the folded clothes.
"I'm ready to go anywhere," he said while zipping his bag. "There could be a disaster and I would be ready. I could spend a week." He let go a small laugh like what he was saying was funny.
I don't know this man. I never seen him before. I'm the only one sitting nearby, so I'm pretty sure his directing his verbiage towards me.
"Yeah, that's cool," I said.
By now, I didn’t care where I was in the book. I lost all inspiration to read so I close my phone. Look up and watch my kids having a blast in the pool.
I know that I'm a antisocial asshole. I don't like stranger and it's not because I'm afraid of them. I'm just annoyed with people because I have no idea what to say to them. Small talk is not my forte. But this guy was pushing my annoyance to a limit that I rarely see. Not that I would have done anything, or said anything. I was just really annoyed inside.
The worst in all of this, and what makes the cake is that as soon as I stopped reading and closed my phone, he went quiet.