Well . . .

I was at a crowded food court. This guy started talking to me. He looked sort of homeless but he had a way with words. It turns out we are both writers. He wanted to know what I did. I was sitting in my wheelchair and he looked homelessy so I thought, do you really want to get into THAT conversation? But I said, "nothing" and asked him what he did for a living, which seemed like a faintly ridiculous query. He said he was writing a book and mentioned a professor. He looked forty. Still the conversation was going well even though he just seemed too into whatever I had going on, including my vitamins. There's a vitamin bottle I take liquid vitamins out of and he wanted to hold it and look at it. I said can't you just look at it from here? I just didn't want a random stranger holding something I drank out of. He suddenly grew very offended and said he wasn't going to steal it. He pretty much left in a huff.

How did I cross a line? In what world would his course of action have ended well? His eyes were red; maybe he was on ice.

Ice addicts are supposed to be all psychotic-y but this isn't the first time I may have offended a sensitive ice addict. There was an ice dealer I got into a conversation with at the beach who was offended that I was eating crudites out of a tupperware container and I didn't offer him any. He was sensitive to what he seemed to think were bad table manners.

So mind your P's and Q's, even if they might be imaginary.