I was downtown yesterday…as I often am…because…I have…like school there and stuff…

I was downtown yesterday and stuck with nothing to do for three hours from 2:00 – 5:00. I have a physics practical scheduled there, but those are every other week. And since I had a math tutorial I needed to get to at 5:00, I had some time to kill. So just for kicks, I walk down to the grand daddy of all comic book stores in hopes of picking up some stuff.

I set off at about 3:30, thinking that it’d take me about half an hour to get there, so I still got a good half hour to sniff around once I’m there. Unfortunately, I’ve forgotten my watch at home in my mad dash to get out the door – it is a Monday after all. So through the day I’m relying on random strangers I past on the street to give me the time. And people in downtown Toronto are pretty friendly, so I didn’t have much of a problem. Once I got there, I was curious about the time and how long it took me to get there, so I decide to ask someone. Now there were two guys by the comics shelf – one was this skinny chinese guy who was just flipping through various books looking for something to buy. And next to him was this huge black guy wearing a leather jacket reading an Ultimates trade paperback – I figure he’s been there for like an hour already. For whatever reason that’s completely lost to me now, I decided to ask the huge black guy for the time.

Me: Hi, sir?

Him: <keeps reading, doesn’t even look at me>

Me: …I just wanted to ask you for the time…

Him: <keeps reading, possibly wondering whether to eat me or not>

Me: …if I could just bother you for a sec…

Him: <Pauses for 5 full seconds, looks over to see that, yes – I’m still there. Gives me the coldest, most evilest, and scary look I’ve seen in my life.>

Me: <has now sweat out a full two litres of fluid>

Him: It’s four. <returns to reading>

Me: <harsely> Thank you sir. <gets the hell out of the store!>

Maybe it’s just me and my half-sized backbone, but I don’t ever want to bump into him again…so maybe I’ll just never visit the shop for as long as I live. Comic book stores aren’t supposed to be this scary – so I think I’ll stick with good old faithful.