The Park

So this evening I take my usual trip to Union Square Park, just to clear
my head and sit down and watch people walk by. A few minutes after
I take a seat on a bench next to the Gandhi statue (seems more peaceful)
a Middle Eastern man sits down next to me. Nothing wrong with that, but
it comes up later in the story. He pulls out a cigarette, which annoys me
to no end, because somehow no matter where I sit, someone is smoking
next to me and I happen to be downwind. Anyway, shortly after that a
older white male with very, very blonde hair walks by, slowly. And he's
staring at both of us, very intently as he walks by. I glance at him, look
down, glance back up and he's definitely looking from me to the guy next
to me. He moves on and I forget about him.

About 15 minutes later he walks back again, this time smoking, and of course
walking in the other direction. Again he's looking at me and the guy next
to me. This time, he walks over and stands, right next to me, but slightly
behind me so I can't really see what he's doing, but I know he's there. Now
I'm slightly unnerved. I can tell that his head is at least pointed in our
direction, but I don't know if he's looking at us or looking elsewhere. My
only instinct is, this guy thinks we must be terrorists. Maybe that's not
a normal thought, but when you have me, sitting in a hooded sweatshirt
with headphones on and an annoyed look on my face, sitting next to an
obviously Middle Eastern man...

Anyway, as this guy is smoking, he slowly steps forward a little, and now he's
slightly ahead of me and now he's nodding at the guy next to me. He does
this a couple of times, and there are some words exchanged, only I can't
hear what is said because I've got the headphones on. But then the white
guy goes and sits down next to the Middle Eastern guy and they start talking.
So I immediately reach in and turn off my mp3 player to listen in. The first
thing the white guy asks is, "Where are you from?" to which the Middle
Eastern guy responds, "Syria." Oh great, the white guy is some kind of
wanna-be detective and now he knows the guy is from Syria. His next
question is, 'What are you doing in New York?' The Middle Eastern
guy is facing away from me so I can't really pick up what he answers. Then
they introduce each other. Frank and Hassan. I'll let you guess which
name belongs to which person. Then Frank asks, "Where are you staying?"
and Hassan gives some answer I don't understand. Apparently Frank
didn't understand it either because he asked Hassan three times, before
getting that Hassan was staying at the W Hotel at the north end of the
park. But apparently, Hassan wasn't staying there tonight for whatever reason.

And this is where I think my life really is a movie, because the next part
of the conversation is something you'd hear right out of a drifter, or
gay, screenplay. Frank asks 'So, where are you staying tonight?' and Hassan
says 'I don't know. Do you have a place for me?' and Frank says, "Well,
yes, but I have roommates," and Hassan laughs and says 'Ha ha, that's OK
with me!'

At that point I got up and left because wherever the conversation was
going, I didn't want to be a part of it.