Who's the Crazy One?

I decided to go for a coffee run. I was tired of taping my eyelids open and yawning every few seconds. Normally, I would bring co-workers along because the area was a little sketchy, but everyone was busy. So, I put on my big girl panties and exited the building. I immediately began speed walking.

I’m one of those extremely paranoid people that look for escape routes everywhere I go, so I was very aware of my surroundings. I passed a busy seafood shack and considered stopping there for a sweet tea instead, but I knew at this point, I really needed some coffee.

Of course, I kept looking behind me to make sure I wasn’t being followed. That’s when I saw him. A scruffy, dirty man with a large backpack about twenty yards from me. Although I was already speed walking, I quickened the pace until the arches of my feet started to burn. I looked over my shoulder thinking I had put enough distance between us, but the man was even closer.

            “Sh…do…you…know?” he yelled at me.

            He was too far away. I couldn’t make out the words, but I was sure he was speaking alien or zombie. I suddenly started thinking about the man who took bath salts and then ate someone’s face. Was this man asking me if he could eat my face? I started running.

            I peered over my shoulder and saw that the man was running too. He was chasing after me and yelling. “Sh…de…no…to…at!”

            What was he saying? I’m not Catholic, but I began saying Hail Marys just to be safe. I was sure I was going to die, which made me instantly think of my two sweet boys who would be motherless all because their mother had to have a coffee.

            The man caught up to me. His steel blue eyes bore into my brown ones. I threw my hands up in the air and backed up. “I don’t have any cash on me!” I yelled.

            His eyebrows arched a bit in confusion. He turned his head from side to side like a dog hearing his name. My heart stopped in my chest, and I was sure the sky was growing darker by the second. The ground was a carousel, spinning.

            “I just want directions to Hardees,” he said.

            “Oh, I’m sorry. I couldn’t hear you.” I smiled warmly at him, wanting to redeem my haughty self, but felt foolish. I’m an awful person, I thought. I'm a judgmental, scared, and paranoid little girl trapped in a woman's body. 

“It’s okay,” he said.

“Hardees is just up ahead,” I said. “Once the road ends, cross the street, and it will be on your left.”

            He thanked me before darting off. He seemed to want to get enough distance away from me as possible.

            Just like that, he was gone.

            And I was an idiot.

But I was alive and grateful. And coffee, never tasted sweeter.

Moral MOMent: You really can't judge people by the way they look.