I sat at the eye doctor with my eyes dilated to the maximum. Waiting was an excuse to be creative. The attendant at first couldn’t believe I could see well enough to draw. He asked me what I was drawing. “An alien who accidentally took the wrong kind of laxative” was my off-the-cuff answer.

“Can I have it?”

I thought he was pranking me, but I could see by the look on his face that he was serious.

I handed him the card.

“This gives me an idea for a story,” he said.

I laughed and then realized I probably should explain my reaction.

“I’m not used to running into people like me.”

“People are generally tedious, aren’t they?”

He slipped the card in the front pocket of his scrubs.

You never know.