The bike ride began normal enough. I cut through the parking lot at the station and headed down a residential street. I saw this fellow in tan or khaki turn the corner from the right, and run ahead of me. He was wearing work clothes, not athletic clothes. He was jogging quickly, but not sprinting by any means, nor was he leaping. He was maybe half a block length ahead of me, and disappeared with the curvature of the path. I was zooooming on my bike, and I did not catch up with him. Which was strange. Nor did I pass him, it turns out. Because I saw him twice more, coming out from the right, and turning to run in front of me, like half a block’s length. And he disappeared ahead. I did not catch up or pass him. When I got to the main street he was well and truly gone, and I had a very strange feeling about what I’d just seen several times in the space of five minutes.
I’ve not seen a jogger run that fast since the Bay to Breakers. Not only that, he turned into the path in exactly the same fashion, and ran in the same fashion, each time I saw him. Not sprinting. Just a casual and efficient jog. Where was he retreating to when he wasn’t on the path? It looked like it was just the bushes.
It was that in-between time where it’s not quite night sky, and not quite pre-dawn sky. I wonder if I’ll see him again.
Incidentally, the main street I came to, when it was clear he was gone? It is part of one of the several crossroads I pass on my way to work. Not saying that to posit that the Dark Figure or Man in Black is actually the Man in Tan, but it was peculiar.
2 Responses to “jogger of the crossroads?”
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Wow. Sure sounds like it to me. Was there anything noticeable about the places where he tunred in, like about the plants?
There was nothing noticeable that I saw this morning, but I think something very different happened yesterday morning. I think I had one of those ‘time dilation’ experiences, because my ride was over noticeably fast this morning. I looked in all the spots where the runner seemed to have popped out of, but it was totally nonsensical that someone should have turned out of those areas and run along the path. And I passed several joggers this morning, too, without even trying.
Yesterday it seemed like I was flying down the path, yet I had time to register this spectre in detail? When I ride back up this afternoon I’m going to see if there’s anything different growing along that side of the path. I couldn’t go back the way I came yesterday, because I had to take a detour on my way home.
Cue up the theme music from The Twilight Zone, I guess.