It was a sunny day in May of 2009. Water was running underneath the snow melting along the dirt road leading up to the house I was living in. Birds were chirping and the leaves were sprouting from the birch trees. I was listening to the song “in for the kill” by the artist “la roux” on my iPod while I was waiting for the bus to come. I had overslept that day and had no other choice than to take the bus that were supposed to be here at around 10:00 am.
As I was kicking around rocks in the bus stop, I familiar old man walked by. This old man always went for his daily walk around this time. He would walk down the steep and long road next to the bus stop every day to pick up his mail and newspaper. I never knew if his objective was always to get the mail and newspaper or if he just enjoyed the walk.
I always assumed at his age he had nothing better to do and some fresh air was something he enjoyed. He was quite tall, maybe around 180cm. I am quite tall myself and weren’t used to meet people who even challenged me in height at the time. As original as he was, he wore a sixpence and his upper body leaned forward. Almost to the point where he could use a walking cane, but he seemed fit enough to not need one.
I never gave this man too much thought, he always did his routine every day and that was that. Until I wanted to greet him. After all I had been living in the neighborhood for a good few years. It almost felt rude not to at least acknowledge his presence. At first I waved at him as he came down the road, but I had to catch the bus as it was almost leaving me behind. I looked at him walking slowly towards the mailbox and reached down to grab the contents.
After some time had passed and school was over for that year. It was time for summer break, and I didn’t have to take the bus as much as I did when I was still in school. However, I lived 20 minutes from the nearest town. This meant that as a minor with no way to transport myself anywhere I still had to use public transport to get anywhere. Back then I was passionate about skateboarding, and the summer break was perfect to practice it with some friends.
The point is, if I wanted to go anywhere, I had to use public transport. I was never a morning person, the earliest bus I would take was the exact same bus I had to take whenever I was running late for school. This meant more interactions with this old man.
The window of my room was facing the main road and the bus stop I used. So, whenever I wasn’t going anywhere, I would sit in my room and play World of Warcraft with the window open. It was great to feel the warm summer breeze as I was doing horrendous in that game, but I enjoyed every minute of it. The old man would not miss a day of his routine, and I saw him every day from my window.
One day I was going to the local beach, I found myself waiting for the bus again. As I was waiting, I thought to myself; “Maybe I should greet the old man again?”. My eyes threw a look towards the same road he would come down from. I saw him approaching from the distance, this time he was a little late. I started walking towards him, and eventually we were facing each other.
I looked at him with a warm smile and said “Hey, how are you doing? Going for your daily stroll?”.
He didn’t even react to me and just walked around me towards the mailbox. I turned around as he was walking by and thought to myself, “Is he okay?”. Realistically you’d think it was common sense to at least give a respond to someone greeting you. But not this old man. The interaction I had, if you can call it that, left me bewildered and a little ashamed. So, I strolled down to the bus stop and just ignored that it ever happened.
The day went by like it always do at the beach. We played a bit of football in a circle trying to keep the ball from hitting the ground. Jumping from the pier or simply sunbathe. The interaction with the old man still bothered me and lingered in my mind throughout the whole day. I really wanted to reach through to this old man, not necessarily to make friends but just to make a nice gesture towards an elderly person. And it frustrated me the way he simply ignored me. This thought just never seemed to leave me.
The next week me and some friends were going to the town to go skating on the local skatepark there. It was a lot bigger than the one we had at the local elementary school, so we were quite excited about it. Naturally I would go down to the bus stop with my iPod and headset on. This time however, I was set on having a conversation with the old man. I just wouldn’t let myself be ignored this time.
As he approached his mailbox, I yelled at him to get his attention.
This time was different, he turned around and looked at me with a menacingly look in his face. His face was quite pale and had the look of someone who just had seen something supernatural. His eyes were a shade of gray I had never seen in someone. He lifted his sixpence up to greet me and said hello to me and put it back on and kept walking back to wherever he resided. His voice was quite odd, it almost sounded metallic. I ran after him trying to keep the interaction going, but he kept ignoring me as he always did.
As confusing that interaction was, I had finally made the old man greet me. His metallic voice and his look still bothered me. I didn’t know what to think of it, but the situation lingered on my mind for the rest of the week. Until one day I was at my desk playing World of Warcraft my mother called me. As always me and my mother would talk about anything between heaven and earth. But the thought of the interaction I had with the old man hadn’t left my head yet.
My mother then asked me what time it was, I replied with around 10 am as I could see the old man going for his walk. The phone went silent for a minute, I asked if she was still there. She said yes and asked me about the old man. I told her I had seen him every day for a long time and even tried to contact him. I heard a sigh through the phone as she told me about how this old man had been dead for three years.
She then went on about how they would ironically call him “Smiley” as he was always in a grumpy mood she said. I then told her all about the interactions I’d had with this mysterious old man. After I hung up, I realized I had been trying to contact a ghost of a person who once lived. This phone call left me bewildered, but mostly curious. Could I still make contact with him? But after the phone call I would never see the old man again. I told our closest neighbor about him, and they just laughed at me in disbelief. I knew what I saw and what happened.