For a brief history of some of the very strange, self destructive people I’ve come across, read round 2 and round 1.
I’m re-evaluating my skepticism of psychic abilities after recently meeting Joe. In round 2 my parting words were intended to be just silly nonsense, but turned out to be quite eerily prophetic, even if not 100% accurate.
So let’s cut to the chase. Joe is not his real name. Joe is outgoing, and the ladies find him quite attractive. He’s got a great sense of humor, and I enjoyed the time I spent with him. Joe doesn’t stand out intellectually, but he can hold his own in a conversation. Joe can strike up an interesting conversation with anyone, and when they walk away, Joe isn’t the kind of guy they forget all about on the way to the parking lot. There’s something very appealing about him.
Joe has killed a man.
We’re not talking barfight accident death, here. We’re talking cold-blooded calculated revenge murder, of the variety that doesn’t get investigated because the cops have better things to do, and he’s probably better off dead anyway.
I spent the last fifteen minutes staring at the screen, struggling to find the right words to describe how disturbed I am. I always knew intellectually that murder happens in real life, so it obviously follows that some people must be capable of commiting it.
But he seems so sane! In the brief moments he reluctantly spoke about it, you could see a curtain of bitter anger slam closed over an expression that had been lighthearted and playful moments before. It was startling, and frightening. There was no remorse or regret, there.
I don’t really know what else to say. It’s hard to describe Joe’s situation while trying to protect his identity. All I can say is that nobody is looking too hard for him, and the world is probably a little better off because of what he did.
All those stories are fascinating Mosier, but I’ve gotta ask… do you meet these people (and they then divulge this really intimate side of themselves) during your brief interaction with them serving pizza? If so, that’d be a great way to go about writing a book!
Just as a by the by, by acknowledging that you have knowledge of his crime and apparently of who the victim was, and that you are modifying your actions for the express intent of helping Joe avoid detection, are you now an accessory to murder?
I meet a hundred or more people a day, and have good conversations with about a dozen. If you think that about one person in a thousand has a crazy story like this, it’s not so hard to imagine that I run into a few of them.
I don’t serve them pizza, though. I’m more like a bartender, and the setting can sometimes be pretty private and intimate. Most of the people I run into like this are not ones that I serve, but sometimes ones I work with or who are just passing through. At any given time, about 75% of the people around me are tourists from places as close as L.A. or as far as Bangkok.
Some other interesting people I’ve met are the former CEO of a major national broadcasting company, a guy who was paid by MTV to make out with two hispanic girls on camera for the Latin Grammys broadcast, and the creative genius behind Buns, Abs, Thighs, etc. “Of Steel”.