The Man on the Fire Escape

What’s the creepiest thing that’s ever happened to you that you still can’t explain?

I don’t know if this counts as creepy or just sad, but I still think about it years later.

When I was in college, I lived in a small apartment facing another building across a narrow

street. Every morning around 7 a.m., I’d see an old man sitting on his fire

escape. He always wore the same gray sweater and drank coffee from a red mug.

One day, I nodded at him without really thinking. He smiled and nodded back.

After that, it became a thing. We never spoke—just nodded or waved every morning.

If I slept in, I’d sometimes catch him already heading back inside, like he’d been waiting.