Scary Guy with Cherry-Red Eyes at Rite Aid

My wife and I went to Rite Aid earlier to pick up some supplies for the week and while we were pondering the cat food choices this guy walked up to us and said to my wife, “Excuse me miss, do you know where the pad locks are? The locks that spin, that turn, with the combinations. Do you know where those are?”

We looked over at the guy and we both took a step back from him. He looked rough. Homeless maybe. His clothes were really worn out and sort of dirty looking. His speech was slurred and hard to understand. What startled us, however, was the fact that the whites of his eyes weren’t white; they were hot red, like maraschino cherries. He was also gesturing wildly and was leaning towards us in a weird aggressive sort of way, but not like he wanted to rob us. It was more like he believed we knew where the padlocks were and if he wasn’t forceful enough in asking us, we would hide the answer from him.

A lot of things ran through my head: ‘What’s wrong with him and is it communicable?’ being the foremost. I also started forming ideas about how to push him away while coming into the least amount of physical contact with him should he suddenly go nuts. Maybe that was just a reaction from having watched so many sci fi movies (zombies, rage virus, Helix, etc.) but you never know what might happen these days, especially if someone is so sick their eyes are literally red. I’ve never seen anything like that before.

The way people are doing experiments with viruses and DNA and genetic modification, it’s not impossible for something dangerous to get out in the wild (the general population of humans) anyway. I suppose you have to expect that sort of thing to happen these days, the same way we sort of expect the government to always be two steps from having a new lie and scandal uncovered.

The fact that he was disoriented was even more troubling. When my wife told him we didn’t know where the locks were, he walked away and we saw him stalking up and down the aisles asking other people about padlocks. I just hope that whatever he has isn’t contagious. I have better things to do with my time than lose my mind and wander around stores looking for padlocks.