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THE IMPERSONATOR
While working in Taiwan in 1988, I lived in a dormitory
used by the employees of a security company. The company
owned the high-rise building and the dorm was located on
first floor.
I had become acquainted with a few of these
security "patrol men" who invited me to stay there rent-
free. There were several rooms with 3 or 4 guys per room.
One of these rooms was a larger room that was simply
petitioned off by framework and paneling to create two
rooms. It was in one of these two rooms that I had my
unique experience.
The guys I lived with did shift work -- driving around in
their patrol cars waiting for the call from headquarters
that one of their patron business' alarm had been
triggered. I was home alone except for a couple of guys
that were sleeping. It was about 3 a.m. and I was finding
it hard to sleep. I heard a rustle in the other room and
quickly got out of bed to see who was up-and-about. I was
dying for some conversation.
I walked over to one of the "petitioned" rooms to find the
lights on, the door open, and one of the guys rummaging
through things in the room, as though he were searching for
something. Although the guy that was snooping around
wasn't in his rightful room, I didn't think it strange
because these guys were all "share and share alike" kind of
guys. But what happened next was totally out of character
for this friend of mine.
I said, (in Chinese of course) "Hey, what's going on"? He
simply looked up from his intense search and stared at me
with cold glassy eyes and said nothing -- then promptly
went on with the search. "What are you looking for"? I
asked. No response. He stopped, turned and walked right
past me into the main hallway where I stood and continued
on down the hall. As he walked away, I gave him one more
chance to speak. "Hey, why won't you say anything to me?
I'm talking to you"! Nothing. He just walked out of my
field of vision. I shrugged it off, but felt confused about
his atypical behavior. Incidentally, he was wearing a T-
shirt and shorts. Typical attire for relaxing in the dorm.
The next morning as I readied myself for work, and was
heading out the door, In came the usual graveyard shift
crew back from their night work. I was stunned to see the
guy who had me puzzled the night before. He was laughing
and joking with the others just as he normally would.
"Why wouldn't you talk to me last night when I was talking
to you"? I asked.
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