Henry

Taking the bus is an adventure, anyone will tell you. Today on my adventure I met an interesting man.

I was sitting beside a blue-collar Bowenite and we were having a 'Nice to meet you,' kind of chat. Father of 2, daily commuter, etc. To our left was this large and mysterious looking man, a man I'll call Henry.
Henry was wearing a large ill-fitting blazer, a sloppy tie, an old white shirt. He was tanned, tall, gangly-limbed and had enormous bony spiders for hands. On his knees was a worn briefcase. He had taken off his knapsack, which he'd been wearing backwards, the old canvas hanging under his necktie like a tired little monkey. He looked deeply bored with life.

Henry was looking straight ahead one moment... and the next, he had a camera out - an old-fashioned automatic film camera - and was pointing it at my seatmate and I. *Snap!*
Then he put it away casually, and continued to look straight ahead. Blue-collar worker and I exchanged startled glances. Then the delightfulness of the situation took me over and I sat back to see what might happen. What ensued was a long and lively (and somewhat tense) discussion/argument between my seatmate and Henry about privacy and photojournalism and the appropriateness of taking pictures of people without permission. It was compelling entertainment for a bus ride. At some point, a silly urge overcame me and I whipped out my camera fast-draw style, and snapped it at Henry. As you can see, he took it rather calmly.

Later, when Henry had left the bus, blue-collar guy turned to me and said, "Well now, there's a unique mental profile."

Thanks, Henry, for a great morning bus adventure! I hope your unique mental profile does not cause you too much suffering in life. You look like a good man to me.

....