Odd. How Odd

OK.

This is odd.

First let me remind you of two things:

I am very, very fat.

I ride in a fairly distinctive wheelchair.

OK.

Got that.

So, I was in the bookstore looking to pick up a book to take on our next lecture tour, when I stopped in my tracks. A woman calling, 'Francis, Francis, over here dear. Oh, my, Francis!' as she rushed along. I have become an expert, as all wheelchair users are, at judging the trajectory of the fleet of foot. I could tell she was going to run right into me. I wanted to be parked when this happened. I looked around for someone who looked like a Francis and saw no one. I did notice others staring at her because bookstores tend to be quiet and her raucous behaviour was clearly deemed unseemly in the eyes of others.

Finally I realize that she is calling to me, 'Francis!' Me? Francis? Not likely, I figure that I am a Dave. Look like a Dave. Feel like a Dave. Drive like a Dave. But she is addressing me as Francis. I don't have people ever, ever, ever, mistake me for someone else. I kind of figure I'm a 'one of a kind' sort of person. She reaches to hug me and I quickly, not being into hugs from strangers, said, 'Mam, you've confused me with someone else.' I glance at her eyes, does she have cataracts, does she have a 'otherworldly look' in her eye, and she seems entirely, utterly normal.

She is brought up by my protestation of non Francis status. 'Really, you look just like Francis,' she said.

I thought:

I do?

Really?

There's another one?

I have a doppelganger?

I said: I find that hard to believe.

'Really, you do, I can't believe the similarity.' She begins to apologize and move away. I'm stricken with curiosity and want to ask what he does ... but this is so 'science fiction' that I'm afraid she might say, 'He writes a blog on disability.' And that then, I would disappear.