A loud gent talking —
on his phone, or to himself,
I can’t tell.
He’s looking at the sky,
arms stretched —
gesturing why,
or maybe it’s a note of thanks.
He looks at me,
and I look at him.
Actually, I try to look away —
but he catches me,
and now —
I’m in his game.
Passers-by are passing by,
but he and I —
our eyes are locked.
I’m dreading
what he will say.
He comes close.
I give a fake smile
and try to look away,
but he won’t let me.
He says —
“I know you.
You’re the crazy fool
from the café?”
Shocked at being called crazy, I say —
“You think I’m crazy?
That’s rich coming from a man
who gestures to space
and questions why!”
He says —
“I wasn’t gesturing to anything.
I thought I was struck by lightning,
and I tried to shove it away.”
“But you, lady —
you sit in a café
for hours and hours.
I saw you smiling
while writing all day.”
I say out loud —
“None of your business!
I smile to who —
maybe it’s my mother,
maybe it’s Camus.”
He says —
“See? Just as I thought.
That lady’s smiling
to who-knows-what.”
It’s now a shouting match
between us two —
each one calling
the other —
“You crazy fool!”
Again, passers-by are passing by —
but this time,
everyone is avoiding my eye.
I catch someone staring at me,
smiling ruefully.
He tries to look away,
but I catch him anyway.
And I say —
“Hey, you —
aren’t you that crazy fool from…?”
He stops me midway
and gestures to a billboard above.
It reads —
“We are all crazy fools,
never knowing we are one.
Some speak out aloud,
and some — to none.”
-Curio Athena
Inside the World of Curio Athena 
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