I was sitting at a restaurant having a meal and a beer, doing my crosswords when this stranger walked in the door and walked up to me and said like “thanks for the last time” and put out his hand to shake mine. I told him I hadn’t been introduced to him before and thought it was some kind of mistake. But he shook my hand and then he went on to do the same thing with several others in the restaurant even though he didn’t know them and asked to sit with them and stuff.
Then he ordered a beer and sat down beside me. He was mumbling to himself and kind of half talking to me. He pulled up to my ear and told me they were all just thieves, and something about afghanistan, and that he had the keys to the church across the street. He went on for about 5 minutes. Then he just up and left before he finished his beer and asked me to watch it for him 5 minutes. He never came back.
I must admit that I didn’t quite know what was going on with this guy. I wasn’t exactly hostile to him, but I indicated that he was intruding my privacy. In retrospective I wondered if there was anything I could have done to help him. But it didn’t dawn on me until after he left that he probably was in psychosis. And even if it had I doubt I could have said or done anything. It’s hard to intervene unless you are a close friend or a relative.