My friend came to me visibly disturbed today. He was walking in circles in the living room, looking lost and unstable. The first thing he said upon seeing me was: "I'm still afraid that they will get us."
In the following hour I managed to understand: he's afraid to come to my house because of the fire that happened nearby not too long ago.
"On my way here I still felt like a culprit. I don't know how I managed to go by these few people I met on the way.
We didn't set that house on fire, it was burning without us. It would be stupid to prove it. I was constantly thinking about how we would be forced to prove it, and I felt the sickening fear from it, from the fact that it's impossible to tell people anything in such a nervous situation. I was just waiting to be accused by the mob law, because at least somebody would believe that obvious untruth.
We weren't even close when it started. We came there after the firefighters.
But I couldn't think of how I would prove it. I think, words would just stick in me, and everybody would see my guilt in this. It wouldn't be possible to change their mind. It's always impossible to change people's minds when they think they're smarter. That's what they'd think: we're trying to lie, but they're smarter and they caught the real arsonists.
But we just went there to see the fire like everybody else.
We were going home not watching anyone. It was easy to do.
It was much later that you told me only homeless lived there from time to time. Doesn't help now."
He let out a broken breath and finally took off the hat he was wearing the entire time.
In the following hour I managed to understand: he's afraid to come to my house because of the fire that happened nearby not too long ago.
"On my way here I still felt like a culprit. I don't know how I managed to go by these few people I met on the way.
We didn't set that house on fire, it was burning without us. It would be stupid to prove it. I was constantly thinking about how we would be forced to prove it, and I felt the sickening fear from it, from the fact that it's impossible to tell people anything in such a nervous situation. I was just waiting to be accused by the mob law, because at least somebody would believe that obvious untruth.
We weren't even close when it started. We came there after the firefighters.
But I couldn't think of how I would prove it. I think, words would just stick in me, and everybody would see my guilt in this. It wouldn't be possible to change their mind. It's always impossible to change people's minds when they think they're smarter. That's what they'd think: we're trying to lie, but they're smarter and they caught the real arsonists.
But we just went there to see the fire like everybody else.
We were going home not watching anyone. It was easy to do.
It was much later that you told me only homeless lived there from time to time. Doesn't help now."
He let out a broken breath and finally took off the hat he was wearing the entire time.
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