BLACK BELT

The door of the  shiny red corvette swung open and the driver fell out right in front of me.  He was holding his left arm  high in the air which held the scariest Halloween mask I'd ever seen.  His  black eyes met mine as I screamed.  His greasy hair, beard and dirty ball cap were almost as frightening as the mask. 

I'd parked my car behind the sports car in the driveway of a family holding a garage sale with the thought of only staying a minute or two.  My  garage-sale friend  that was along for this Saturday morning outing was already walking toward the house when she heard me scream. We both faced the strange character.

I let him know that he'd scared me nearly half to death and with a nervous laugh brushed the whole incident off as somebody having early Halloween fun. A joke, right?

As we walked by his car we noticed a life sized rubber mannequin of satan himself, complete with horns and snarly grin, seated in the passenger seat of the convertible.  The man shouted something vulgar, laughed and started to follow us. 

He positioned himself  at my left elbow and proceeded to whisper in my ear.  As I walked, he walked and stayed close. My friend took off trying to put distance between herself and the stranger.

I can't repeat the things he was saying.  He had a continuous stream of words that I never knew existed or that could be tied together in a sentence.  I tried not to look into his face and kept walking.  There were a few other folks arriving at the outdoor sale but he didn't seem to notice or want to talk to them.   We seemed to be velcroed together.

Finally I broke free, got my friends attention and we made a beeline back to my big red truck.  Whew, that was weird!

I really don't know what to think of that situation.  And I'm not sure I was prepared for action had he actually touched me.
Perhaps a course in self-defense is not a such a crazy idea after all!  There's a black belt in my future because it's a wild and woolly world out there!

I suppose that is the attraction of a garage sale. You just never know what you'll find!