In honor of the Celtics being in the playoffs, I thought I’d share this story about a Celtics fan I came across during one of my commutes to Boston
As I stepped off the escalator, I noticed a strange man wearing a green Celtics t-shirt approaching people. It barely registered though. Every morning I see a variety of people asking for money, food, cigarettes, etc. There wasn’t anything too different about this man…except I started to notice that he only approached women. Great, I thought to myself. Let’s avoid this one.
I headed over to wait for the next train and saw him sauntering towards me from the corner of my eye. I could see his greasy, stringy hair swinging side to side and I noticed he had a hunch back…I didn’t make eye contact. I continued looking straight ahead at the wall with advertisements for (Rock) Star Checking from Salem Five…Keep Talking, We’re Listening…until I realized he was standing right next to me. I suppose I could have just kept staring straight ahead, but it was getting awkward. So I slowly turned my head to look at him.
In all seriousness, he asked, “Do you want to go on a date with me?”
Shocked, I didn’t know how to respond. After replaying it a few times in my mind I realized I had just been asked out…by the weird, stringy-haired, crazy Celtics T-shirt guy. “Um…no,” I mumbled.
And he just walked away.
I could hear the man standing behind me snickering (which is what I would be doing if I saw this encounter). Finally, the T arrived and I stepped on.
A few things crossed my mind after this. What if I had said yes? It was 8:30am. Did the Celtics fan want to go somewhere for breakfast? Or would he have met me somewhere later? Did he ever get a positive answer from any of the women he asked? I guess I’ll never know because I didn’t accept his offer.
I see him every now and then. Always in North Station. Always approaching women. And yes, always in that green Celtics t-shirt.
