Caught sight of someone “hanging around” our fence, thought “What on earth are they doing?” Sort of bobbing up and down against the fence… moved out of my line of sight so I shrugged and went about my day…

I wandered out the front half an hour later to realise with dismay my bobbing friend was still pacing out the front of our house.

“Hello?” I say, “Are you alright? Do you need any help?”

“Thank you for stopping.  I’m not a bad person. I know how this must look…”

“Where are you going? Do you need anything? Directions?”

“Cigarettes.”

“Oh, I’m sorry I don’t smoke… wait, you want to buy cigarettes? There’s a milk bar just up the road there… where the traffic lights are…”

“Thank you.  Thank you so much for stopping.”

I don’t know what condition he might have that would make him bob up and down or become disorientated. I don’t know if he’d had a serious fall or been beaten or why… I do know we were courteous to one another and it was ‘enough’.