Suspicious

Buds, Monkey, and I shared an odd situation this morning.

There was a young man with a backpack on walking through our train car. He had a lovely smile and sparkly eyes and all three of us sensed something was off.

Monkey was suspicious of his smile that lasted too long and was a little too big.

Buds was suspicious because on a train that was not crowded the man managed to bump into him.

I was suspicious because there were four lovely young women sitting in the seats across from us and when the young man walked past them he wasn’t looking at the women’s faces or bodies. He was looking at their bags. And he didn’t just glance at their bags, he looked at each bag individually.

Then I saw him bump into Buds, and when Buddie looked at him, the young man gazed into Buddie’s face with a beautiful apologetic smile, holding the gaze just a touch longer than necessary/typical.

After he moved on down the car I caught Buddie’s eye and mouthed, “Check your pockets,” and he replied with a grin and a nod “Oh, I did.”

Then Monkey asked what we were talking about and after I told her she nodded, too. She’d noticed the exchange as well.

Humans, endlessly fascinating.

Potentially devious, but fascinating.