Unfiltered Story #18537

Husband and I are walking out to the gym. We pass one of the town drunks/junkies, not an uncommon thing here sadly. Usually they are not troublesome, but this guy is a bit loud and seems menacing. We step a bit faster to get ahead from him. As we do this, we are passing a lady a bit older than us, very nicely dressed, pulling a suitcase, looking very much like a tourist. We only get a few steps past her when I hear a noise behind me, and the lady is rushing towards us and starts talking to us in accented English.

Lady: “Hi! So long since I have seen you!” She grabs me in a hug and whispers “that man started yelling at me and scared me, can I talk with you guys for a couple of minutes?”

We smile and assure her that is OK, we are in no big hurry. We start smalltalking (she was from Brazil, from the same city as where some of my family members currently were on vacation! What a coincidence!), and the man is standing some distance away staring at us. He eventually approaches, still yelling to himself and to us.

Man: “Do you know this person?”

Me: “Yes, she’s an old friend of the family. What do you want?”

He mumbles to himself and then eventually leaves. We ask the lady where she’s headed, and show her a route that is a different way from where the man went. I later regretted we didn’t just follow her all the way, it wasn’t that far. I hope she came through alright!