It was right after I clocked in from lunch that I encountered two ladies. I was riding the elevator down from the sixth floor of the children’s hospital where I work. The elevator opened on the fourth floor and they stepped in smiling and obviously in a good mood. Seeing them, I figured it was safe to assume that whatever child they came to visit was well on the way to recovery.
The older lady who I took to be the mom looked to be in her late 50’s. Dressed in jeans, a simple blouse, and a light sweater she looked like any of a couple of hundred other middle class women you would see in a hospital during a normal day. This lady was talking on her phone as the door closed and that's when she turned towards me and made a point of looking up at me in an exaggerated manner.
It was the kind of gesture average and short people make towards tall men like me. Like they saw something amazing up in the sky and leaned their heads as far back as they could go to appreciate the sight. I’m 6’-5” and while I do find such behavior annoying, I’ve come to understand it.
The younger woman looked to be mid-twenties and was dressed similarly as the older lady she accompanied. Thankfully, she stayed fixated on her own phone and didn’t pay me any attention. Truthfully, I wasn’t sure what the relationship was between the older and younger lady but she could have been either her daughter or much younger sister.
The elevator started descending and that was when the older lady looked over at me. “You sure are tall,” she said, her face morphing into a rather strange smile. I instantly assumed her next statement would be to ask if I played basketball. The question she did ask was totally unexpected and, for me, creepy.
“Are you as tall as Barron Trump?” She spoke her face, taking on an expression I imagined was similar to someone seeing a divinely inspired figure walking here on Earth. She looked at me, her eyes blazing with a fervent fire that she knew the true faith and she was, in an indirect way, seeing if I was a believer like her.
It was pure, unadulterated creepy behavior and proved to me, like there was any doubt, that MAGA is a cult. Yeah, sorry, I avoid people whose fanatical beliefs seem detached from reality. That not only covers religious zealots but moon landing hoaxers, anti-vaxxers, and flat Earthers. We all have our idiosyncrasies, but at some point common sense needs to reign in our innate human failings.
Whatever the case, the older lady’s question was enough to pull the younger woman’s attention away from her phone. She too looked up at me, a similar glow of conviction on her face.
“Ma’am, I have no idea,” I said as noncommittal as possible.
They both nodded at me, the creepy factor still present since their movements were almost synchronized. The older lady proceeded to ask me a few other questions about the Trump family that had me feigning ignorance.
My responses were obviously not satisfactory but when the elevator arrived at their floor she didn’t have time to pursue what would have probably been an impromptu lecture. They both walked out and soon disappeared into the greater world.
I went about my business wanting to take a shower.
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