Interesting Encounter

I grabbed a piece of pizza from my favorite shop, which took me approximately 30 seconds to eat. So, if were going to take full advantage of my "lunch hour," I had approximately 57 minutes and 30 seconds to kill. Accordingly, I headed off to a local bookstore (not my favorite, alas) and wandered around a bit. I looked at the DVDs, but the $10 ones weren't anything I wanted. I breezed by the CDs and found myself at the "Religion and Spirituality" section. After some half-hearted browsing, I opened a biography of Gene Robinson, the well-publicized Episcopal bishop in New Hampshire. I was curious to read more about his family life and see what was said and what could be read between the lines.

As I was thumbing through to read the sections that interested me, I became aware that a guy had entered the same aisle and sat down with a book. He emitted some sounds from time to time, which seemed to be calculated to gain my attention. I resolutely ignored him. (It's difficult to explain exactly what the sounds were -- it was as if he kept reaching passages in the text that really grabbed him, and he really wanted to read them out loud, and was emitting his unique mumble/sigh as if he were almost sounding the words out on the page so that maybe I would ask him about it.)

Sure enough, Mr. Emit did in fact accost me as I put my book back and went to leave. He wanted to know if I had read the Rapture/Left Behind series. (I hadn't.) He wanted to know if I had seen the movies. (I hadn't.) He explained that I should, I absolutely should! They are ... ! [Here, he kissed his fingertips and quickly moved his hand away from his mouth.]

I said something along the lines of "Ah." or "Hm." and didn't linger. Miss Manners would likely have prescribed something a bit more elaborate (like, "Oh, that sounds nice. Thank you."), but I was working very hard at avoiding the blunt rudeness of telling him I'd heard and read enough about that series to put me off it for the next million years or so.

Oh wait, maybe that means I'll be left behind. Then I will only be around for another 70 years.

Rats.