The Misadventures of Quinxy von Besiex truths, lies, and everything in between

The Man Lost in Time

I'm sitting at my local cafe and this normal-looking guy with a laptop bag comes up, asks if anyone is sitting at the table next to me.  He sits down, sets up his computer, connects his iPhone up to it, and within 3 minutes he falls fast asleep.  His phone slips from his hand and crashes to the ground.  He rouses just enough to mutter something about how weird it is that he's suddenly so tired, to joke how somebody might have slipped something into his coffee.  His speech, perfect just minutes ago, is now slightly slurred.  He asks me what time it is, and says something about his computer clock being wrong, saying that it's 1959, and worrying maybe it's a virus.  Over the next 30 minutes he falls asleep a dozen times, asks me for the time another four or five times (each time resetting his computer's time), and all the while his speech is getting progressively more slurred.  I'm no doctor, but given that I'm in Venice, it seemed natural to assume his impairment was chemical, not a medical crisis.  The most fascinating thing to me was to watch him wrestle with this "clock" issue.  He would wake up from his 20 second micronap, re-remember he was trying to fix the clock, ask me what time it was, change the clock, then fumble with trying to install some app, and then eventually drift off again.  And when he woke, he'd repeat the process again.  I became curious, since he kept drawing me into his situation by asking me for the time, and making virus/etc. comments.  At one point, after he complained that the clock now said it was 2005, I watch him move his mouse from the clock setting applet up to the Mac OSX menu bar where the time is shown, "Oct 25  20 05".  Eureka!  His drug addled brain was mistaking military time for a year!  About this time I also see him sneaking some pills out of a prescription bottle and into his mouth.  Perhaps it was a little evil of me, but I elected not to volunteer the solution to his clock problem.  Perhaps I was acting as karma's agent, perhaps I was perpetuating comedy, perhaps I was trying to save him the embarassment of me pointing out such a basic thing, or perhaps I allow myself less generous moments.

On the plus side, just that morning I (arguably) saved a man's life.  I was waiting to cross the street and a gentleman came up to wait as well, and something seemed a little odd about him, perhaps he just seemed a little too earnest to cross the street, and I briefly imagined having to grab him and pull him back from the path of an oncoming vehicle.  Less than a minute later he took a few steps into stepped into the street without looking, just as a city bus was making great haste down the street, trying to beat the light.  I yelled, "Watch out!" and he jumped back just in time.  Perhaps he would have realized on his own at the last minute.  Perhaps the bus driver would have seen him in time and swerved enough to avoid him.  But I don't think I'm unhumble when I suggest there is at least a 20% chance I saved his life yesterday.   So perhaps I was allowed an ungenerous moment last night as my reward.