The Man in the Beat-up Jacket

He asks you unnerving questions that would make you sweat to the knees. Any person who fears for the well-being of their sanity would just walk away and forever abandon the thought of such nonsense. What is very intriguing about his inquisition though, is that it is impressively inventive. And what is even more intriguing to me is the incoherent comebacks he comes up with.

I'll call him the man in the beat-up jacket.

An instrumentalist of Romanian origin and absolutely intelligent demeanor.

A worn-out yet clear accent sounds from his mouth.

The man in the beat-up jacket reads a lot; he talked to me about Quantum Physics after an embarrassing mispronunciation of the word from his side, and utterly embarrassing ignorance from mine. One of the first facts about himself that he happened to share with me.

One day, for no reason, the man in the beat-up jacket struck up a conversation with me about questions. He was particularly interested in deciphering the ones which cannot be cracked--a subject that has been discussed countless times. His speculation was that there exist tiny perplexities, concealed and undetectable, fixed inside us; the confusion that radiates from them is overwhelming and... well, it simply drives you nuts.

During the flow of our conversation, he mentions that my superstitious beliefs--which I earlier conveyed--are one form of the perplexities I mentioned before. He said that I am the way I am because of the immense load I carry of unanswered questions.

Confused, I argue with the intelligent man in the beat-up jacket that everyone, every living person, carries a hell of a load of questions that they will never fathom out.

He disagrees.

I reconsidered my initial impressions of him, and began to think that the man in the beat-up jacket is ill, mad, or perhaps very keen.

"Twelve," said the mad man in the beat-up jacket.

Again, confused, I think to myself that my new-found friend is deranged.  

"There are exactly twelve people in the world who have figured out the answer to their questions. You see, they are very clever."