So we were sitting in the bar at Sinnoths, in Dublin, when I noticed a rugby player looking guy who was hanging out in our proximity. I noticed him because he was hanging out in a weird way. He wasn't sitting or standing at the bar. Nor was he sitting in one of the chair groups a bit away from the bar. He was simply standing on the floor, a good one and a half meters from the counter, with a weird smile and an absent look on his face. I remember saying something like "this guy seems a bit lost" to my Irish friend.
A few beers and Bulmers (Irish cider) later, we were still sitting at the bar, having a discussion about god knows what, when suddenly, out of nowhere, he emerges right next to us, leaning in very close to try and catch what my Dutch friend was saying. Of course the conversation stopped abruptly. What do you do when someone just comes up to you and listens carefully to your conversation without introducing himself? If he hadn't put his face 20 cm's from my friends, perhaps we could have ignored him, but now we were in an awkward situation. My Dutch friend started chatting with him though, and later on we were introduced. It soon became quite clear that he was mentally challenged. His engine was running but there was no one behind the wheel. Or the driver was drunk, which clearly was also the case on that night, and didn't help him to come across as more comprehensible.
Since he didn't have any other friends, and since he seemed like a happy camper, smiling and laughing at anything we said, he was quickly integrated into our group. He was even hired by my Dutch friend to come do his garden in Holland, a legally binding oral business contract. Nothing unusual about that. Who hasn't gotten a bit drunk and hired a retarded gardener who lives 1000 km's away, across two oceans, in another country.
A few beers and Bulmers (Irish cider) later, we were still sitting at the bar, having a discussion about god knows what, when suddenly, out of nowhere, he emerges right next to us, leaning in very close to try and catch what my Dutch friend was saying. Of course the conversation stopped abruptly. What do you do when someone just comes up to you and listens carefully to your conversation without introducing himself? If he hadn't put his face 20 cm's from my friends, perhaps we could have ignored him, but now we were in an awkward situation. My Dutch friend started chatting with him though, and later on we were introduced. It soon became quite clear that he was mentally challenged. His engine was running but there was no one behind the wheel. Or the driver was drunk, which clearly was also the case on that night, and didn't help him to come across as more comprehensible.
Since he didn't have any other friends, and since he seemed like a happy camper, smiling and laughing at anything we said, he was quickly integrated into our group. He was even hired by my Dutch friend to come do his garden in Holland, a legally binding oral business contract. Nothing unusual about that. Who hasn't gotten a bit drunk and hired a retarded gardener who lives 1000 km's away, across two oceans, in another country.
.
Somewhere after midnight, he said he had missed his last bus. And a few hours later when we were about to leave, I made the decision that could have had sinister consequences. He seemed quite helpless, it was raining cats and dogs outside, so I decided he could come with us and crash on (our) floor, in my Irish friend’s apartment that is. When I took that decision, I didn't reflect much upon the fact that the flat owner, who had gone home a bit earlier, might not be to keen on us bringing home drunk, retarded gardeners with intimidating body masses.
So it was that we went back to the flat with a few nice locals and Craig the gardener. Craig got tired pretty quickly and was sleeping sitting up in one of the chairs in the living room. We were about six people who were not about to sleep, so to keep the party mood going, I moved him to the room next door where a friend of mine just happened to be sleeping as well. And this is where the exceptional part of this story begins.
.
The room was about 5 meters wide, thus I put him down to sleep on a safe distance from my friend, who were still to be awaken by feeling the gardener's breath on the back of his neck. Not the most reassuring way of waking up. My friend told the gardener to move away, and so he did. But the creepiest part is yet to come. The second time he was woken up it was to see Craig the gardener standing over him, filming him with his mobile phone. It might have been just to keep a strange sort of souvenir. Then again, we all, and the gardener’s involuntary roommate in particular, might be very lucky to still be in one piece.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment