The stinky of the neighbourhood

There are people and animals which, for a curious characteristic, are known by all the inhabitants of that neighborhood.

For example, in my block, there is Paolo, a man in his late sixties who goes around on a bicycle humming tunes… hum… telling the truth, always the same but, anyway, if he meets you on the street he will ask about you all the time.

“That bunch of flowers… that comes from the mountain… hey, hi there, how are you?”

“Hello Paul, I’m fine, thank you”.

And it would seem pretty normal so far, if it weren’t for the fact he could ask you the same question ten times in the same day, it all depends on the opportunities you have to meet him. For everybody, Paul is the good fool of the town.

Then, there’s Mrs. Mary, who walks with her back all curved and with her head down, looking at the sidewalk. It seems she is carrying a large boulder on her shoulders but I want to think it is a basket full of cherries and with her slow steps, she is careful not to drop even one on the ground. When you meet her she doesn’t change position but you always hear the same words being pronounced: “watch where you’re steppin’, dude”.

The first few times she scared me, so I sped up my steps and walked away quickly, almost hopping to avoid stepping on her imaginary cherries. Everyone knows her as Mary, the lady who looks to the sidewalks.

Finally there is a kitten with a beige paw, which everyone recognizes precisely for this physical peculiarity, all black with a light spot on the paw. However, the thing that made her most known is the fact that this cat probably thinks she is a skunk and every time she gets scared she gives off a toxic cloud of unpleasant smell. Hence the nickname the stinky of the neighbourhood.

I’m sure that in every neighbourhood you can have atypical encounters, but if the oddities could be limited to harmless gestures or words, it would be a variegated world, full of colors and not spoiled and monochromatic like the one in which we live.