Have you ever talked to a well dressed mad man before without knowing? I've been there before lol.
It was on a Monday morning, around 8am to be precise, when every working class person makes moves to be at their place of work, just like myself. I was walking really fast, so as to be in the office before 9 am, when all of a sudden, I felt the presence of an unknown person, directly at my back, who seemed to be following me a bit too closely, turning whenever I turned, and stopping whenever I stopped.
As a very observant person, trying to be security conscious, I had turned severally, to even catch a glimpse of the person trailing me, atleast to see if he was trying to hurt me, but this guy seemed to be in a haste just like me, so I just thought, he was just trying to get to his place of work just like me. After several minutes of closely following me, he finally came over to my right hand side, and only then did I catch a full glimpse of the young man who seemed to have been trailing me.
This guy was like "Daddy daddy, please what's the time" ...on hearing his statement I was a bit confused as to why he called me daddy but then while still walking briskly, I assumed it was just a mere case of mistaken Identity, so I went on to tell him the time without stressing.
The guy thereafter was quiet again for some time, and during this quiet period questions resonated within me "is this guy OK? Why on earth will he call me daddy or do I look like a married man?" But then, looking at his mode of dressing, made me feel he was probably just trying to respect, or tease me, because this young man was properly dressed on a blue suite...the only odd thing was that his shoe was a bit too tartared, and his hair was a bit too messy with little dirt debris, resting on the edges ( this should have alerted me, coupled with the way people were staring at us, and trying to distant themselves from this young man...but unfortunately, I was just too concentrated on my destination).
After we had walked together for about 3 minutes straight, he began to mouth some words, increasing his tempo gradually –"This world! This world!! This world!!!"...On hearing him, I tried to be a good guy, and began to advise him not to take things too hard on himself. While I talked, this guy was very good at making this "hmm" sound, making me think he was listening to me.
Occasionally he would respond with "Daddy!! this life!!" But I continued taking part of my time to advise and talk to him and while still talking to this guy that I turned to a motivational speaker because of, thinking he was really listening and pondering on my words, this guy gave me a very hot slap on my face.
At that point I stopped walking to understand what had just occurred, and ask him what I had said wrong that warranted that hot slap but surprisingly, this guy didn't even stop he continued walking like we weren't talking a while ago...I got really mad and had it in mind to slap him back for even making me waste my saliva in trying to console and advise him.
Not too long while still nursing this serious anger in me, a middle-aged man along the road side, walked to me and asked " don't you know you have been walking and talking with a mad man all this while? We have been looking at you from the corner and wondered what could bring you two together...you are very lucky he only slapped you once on a very normal day, he would turn you to a punching bag".
After saying these words, the man went his way, leaving me in shock, and confusion—" so I have been talking to a mad man all this while? But how is that guy mad?? he is properly dressed in suite" I asked questions I couldn't answer, and was even grateful I wasn't turned to a punching bag like the older man said, and so I continued my walk to the office and while still walking, I saw the well dressed mad man on the other side of the road rolling on the floor and doing the earthworm dance on that dusty ground.
That was when it really dawned on me that I had been advising a mad man all along, making me know there are levels of madness, and the one I had encountered that very day was 'Gentle Madness'.
Thanks For Reading.