Shot up a sizzlecloud

Yesterday I was sitting in the library, half way through 'I was told there would be cake', when a jingling man with no teeth, swishy blue pants, a thin blue singlet, tonnes of blue jewelery and a blue turban approached me and asked me to explain To Kill a Mockingbird to him, as he'd watched the movie the previous day and was confused. I myself was also confused, as my brain struggled to adjust from the world of the book I was engrossed in, back to reality, made difficult by the presence of this otherworldly man. I think I said something incredibly insightful and intelligent such as "I think its about racism".

He then took hostage the next ten/fifteen minutes of my life, telling me how wonderful a movie it was, even though he hadn't quite understood it, and all about racism in Japan at the moment, and his travels to Thailand, and about the time he got beat up on the subway by 10 men with bottles, because of his turban. And the blood, oh, how there was blood. But he got no help because of the way he looks, there was no police, no ambulance, no embassy assistance when he complained. He stood there with his hands out, palms facing up, with his mouth wide open, tears in his eyes, for what seemed like a long long time. I didn't know what to say, so I said nothing. I felt for this strange man, but I also felt so awkward, and just wanted to go back to my book (selfish I!). He thanked me for my time, touched my head, then sat down near me to read the newspaper.

On another note, today I was sitting in a park (read: a run-down playground that has no grass, but only dirt, where lots of hobos like to hang out) and some man gave me, and all the homeless people also sitting in the park pieces of cake each. Yummy fancy cake! It was delicious and custardy, with some cream of some kind inside, albeit slightly melted. He explained that it was cake made fresh today, God forbid giving people inbetween homes day-old delicacies. He tried to give me more, but my hands were full and covered in icing already. In Japan, the homeless eat cake! Well today they did, anyway.