The creepiest thing in my life just happened.

There's an extremely talkative man who I see every once in a while in the hospital. He was here for a while for his mom, but she died a few months ago so it's been a while since I've seen him.

I saw him this morning. And this was a morning like no other. In my life.

First I saw him sitting at the tables next to the coffee stand. I avoided his gaze because I was hoping he wouldn't come talk to me. I was doing a good job until I heard, "Oh my god, Suzanne!?" He couldn't believe I was still working here (yeah, tell me about it). He reminded me that his mother had died, and proceeded to show me pictures of his family. At the funeral. Then came a picture of the casket. Then came a picture of his mom in the casket. Then came a picture of his mom in her hospital bed. Right after she died. I'm talking head back, eyes closed, mouth open. The way a person falls asleep on the sofa. But not asleep. dead.

WHAT!?!? Who is this person?

The first couple of times he came I gave him the benefit of the doubt - he's extremely friendly, and it just seemed that maybe he needed to talk. He didn't talk to me about anything deep, just a lot of friendly small talk. Then a girl who works with me told me that he'd asked her sister, who volunteers at the hospital, for her number. I thought that was a little strange, but whatever.

After the pictures, he began to seem very interested in how my life is going for me. Why I'm still working here, what area of town I live in (don't worry, he wasn't trying to get specific), how long I've lived there, what places I've been to recently. When he asked that last question, I assumed he meant restaurants or something like that, so I asked him if he'd heard of Black Sheep, which is where I went last night. He said, "I'm assuming... that's a band?" No. I told him about it, where it was, how it tasted. He asked about other restaurants I liked. Now believe me, at this point, I realize that my retelling sounds like he was a creepy guy from the start, but believe me, he wasn't. He just sounded like a really friendly person who wanted to learn. So then he starts telling me about all the places where he used to deliver pizza in the fan, and this is punctuated by pointless little stories about the time he went to visit his friend the mechanic and he wasn't there, or the time his cousin stayed with him and ate all of his cereal.

We're nearing the end of the conversation, which has felt like a really odd dream, and he says, "You know, we should go to Black Sheep some time!" And I say, "Yeah," but in a way thats like you're just saying that but we won't actually do it. Because you're creepy and old. Then he asks me to write down my number, tells me he'll call me Saturday. Is Saturday a good day for me? No, I'll be out of town with my parents. I write down the wrong number. He verifies it with me and leaves. And now, of course, I'm afraid that he'll be at the hospital some time when I'm here and ask me why my number didn't work. Why, why, WHY didn't I have the guts just to say "No, I don't think so." How hard would it have been? That was so dumb. I'm so dumb sometimes.

I realize that the creepiest part of the story happened at the beginning... but this was the creepiest thing that has ever happened to me in my life. Ever.