I walked into the city library today to return a few books. And there was Mr. R.
Mr. R, whose last name I can't remember now, is a guy in his 70's who works at the library's "Book Store n' More" where I volunteered for a summer a few years ago. He is always there, he is pretty much the owner of that place, except he doesn't get any money. Well, he and I share a few things beyond just selling books together.
I was 14 at the time. I barely spoke any English, 3 weeks after I moved to the U.S. I thought I should do something with my time so I signed up to volunteer at the library that summer. When I first met him he seemed like the nicest person in the world. But at the saying goes, people are nice until you get to know them.
Mr. R somewhat fits the profile that you expect to have on a Criminal Minds episode. He had been living alone all his life. Never married, no kids, I don't remember exactly what job he had had before he retired but I remember he was fairly rich and had donated a bunch of money to build the bookstore where he volunteered his time now. As I worked with him I started to see some weird habits. Most old people have their own way of doing things and do not like the youth to mess up their regiment, I understand that, but this guy could really have OCD. From the positioning of the signs on the window sill to how each book should be placed in the bag after a customer paid for it, to undoing his shoelaces and redoing them just for fun. Probably the weirdest thing about him was how often he sanitized his hands though. I remember he had this gallon-size hand sanitizer below the register that he used after EVERY SINGLE TRANSACTION. Ok, money is really dirty and full of microbial species, but that is too much!
Then I started noticing some weird behavior around me. I don't remember in detail how this started but I remember him touching my hand as he was "training" me on the cash register. I thought "no biggie, just an accident". But this happened a few times. I started to also notice some awkward glances and then he started hugging me every time as I was about to leave. Then one day the hug turned into a cheek kiss, a sloppy, wet, old-man cheek kiss, and it was then that I thought "Crap, there is something abnormal here". Even in Europe where everybody kisses everybody this would be creepy. I was more disgusted than scared that he would do something to me.
And this is when I started to do everything I could to avoid him as much as possible. I would run away as fast as I could and not linger when saying "bye, have a nice day". I would try to stay as far away from him physically as I could when we were in the store together, which wasn't too easy considering that the store is small and 3/4 of it is occupied by large book cases. Luckily for me it was near the end of the summer so I told them that once school started I wouldn't be able to volunteer anymore.
So that is how that ended. (I should have probably mentioned this to someone at the time but I didn't, I just thought, "whooh, glad that's over with". Luckily, I was the last volunteer student at the bookstore as it turns out, and they do background checks on employees anyway, so I thought there was no danger). But it wasn't exactly completely over. I would see Mr. R almost every time I went into the library to just pick up books, after I quit working there, so I stopped going to the library for a while. He would somehow always come of out his little whole at the right time and would run into me and say hi and give me awkward glances and hugs.
There have been only a few times that I have been in the library that I haven't seen him. I swear, he must be able to smell me every time I walk into that library door. It happened today too.
I saw from my car that he was in the store so as I walked in I turned my head the other way at the entrance to try to avoid him. But it was too late. He had already seen me and was walking in my direction. I sped up before he had come out and ran into the ladies room which luckily is near the entrance. I stayed there a few minutes then went about my business.
I feel bad that I hid in the bathroom just so I wouldn't have to talk to this lonely old man who has no one in this world. But he is creepy and icky...
Although I think I have in a way paid for not being so nice to the creepy old guy. It's as if Mr. R may have "cursed" me with this weird thing with older guys. Well others were not as old as him, and not generally disgusting, but they were and older than me and all PhDs. It was J.S then S.R then M.M then S.R again and then the whole series of D.S, R.L, T.T and L.R from whom I luckily got away at the right time. Oh and the half-German half-Indian guy from my old lab whose name I can't remember for the life of me. This list is too long to be just random. But I believe this curse is now "broken".
Also, in case you were wondering the picture is a drawing of a "creepy old man", and the source is allaboutdrawings.com.
Until next time,
A.M.D
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