long post ahead
Sometimes, it’s nice to be humbled. Perhaps an interaction with someone or something reminds you that you’re not as tough as you think you are. Perhaps it can also be a mirrored effect and it teaches you how you handle yourself in certain situations that you maybe havent been exposed too.
The other day, I had one of these moments.
The other day, I learnt how I’d react to being discreetly greeted… eye to eye… with a mentally challenged man in a full SWAT ballistic get up with an M4 machine gun.
I’ll set the scene;
I was working in a bathroom with a separate area for the sink and vanity, and in the main section was the showerscreen I was installing
Its a dark house, with fairly minimal outside lighting.
It’s down the end of a carpeted hallway, with 3 bedrooms lining the walkway.
The owners of the house came into the bathroom and announced they were just going to head down the road to grab some supplies from the shop but will be no longer then an hour. Told me they have a son who is in a bedroom downstairs (wasn’t working anywhere near there) but he is pretty damn mentally challenged and he won’t come out.
No problem, I thought
So off they went and I went on my merry way doing my job.
15 minutes or so pass, and I’ve forgotten about our conversation and I’m full steam ahead concentrating on my job.
I’m standing in the washroom area reading my paperwork when I notice a flash of a red light appears on my right hand.
It appears and disappears quicker then I notice it, but it was enough for my mind to register the light.
Odd, but must be my mind playing tricks on me.
I walk Into the bathroom and continue about 30seconds worth of work until I need to go back and reassess my paperwork.
I walk back out and start reading when the light appears again, this time it stays.
I notice it’s actually a laser light and it’s pretty steady.
Suddenly cold chills hit me, I can hear what sounds to be breathing behind me
The easiest way I can describe the breathes were laboured, very much like Darth Vader.
I turn around to be greeted by a figure, standing over the top of me, about 8 feet away in full SWAT attire, full fall-out gas mask with an M4 (replica) machine gun with a laser scope attached pointing right at me.
Gentlemen and kind ladies, I’m not the man I thought I was.
I’m also not scared to admit it, I screamed.
Not high pitched or anything, just pure fear.
I fall back in horror, when the man pulls his mask off to reveal his face.
You could tell he is a few sandwiches short of a picnic, and he lets out the gumpiest laugh I’ve ever heard, and literally skips off down the hallway.
I’m talking this bloke was pushing 7ft4 150kg, literally skipping.
I’m holding onto the walls in vein, literally shaking.
A bit of wee came out, and it took me about 2 minutes to regain myself.
The owners came back home a little while later and I told them what happened.
They were so casual about it,
“Oh yeah he likes to dress up in cosplay, sorry about that”
Fuck me, I’m getting too old for this shit