A STRANGE MAN

Everything was great and lovely and oh so wonderfully teenagerly-like. I felt sixteen going on seventeen and swirling and dancing and floating above the whole people who went to work with their dull and bitter expressions. I was full technicolor in a black and white world. I was Dorothy landing in Oz. And of course I crashed.
As soon as I got into the office he ignored me. I went to my place and waited for him to come and say hello. He never did. Same happened at night. No more chance encounter in the lift. I walked sadly and lonely to take my bus. Again I joined the sad and bitter faces. No, again my face contrasted with all the other working-people faces. They were tired but happy going home. I was sad and lonely... again. With a hint of puzzled.
About Friday he went by my place and asked to talk to me.
"What's going on?" He asked.
"That's exactly what I'd like to know." I answered.
"¿Excuse me?" He asked puzzled. "I thought you were mad at me and that we had ended all this affair.
"Well, I am not mad at you. You just ignore me and I thought you were mad at me."
"Oh, no, I'm not mad at you. ¿You see? I'm a strange man. I don't want to be with the same people all the time. Sometimes I want to be left alone. I've been having problems at home."
And then I entered "the other's" field. That part where you receive all the complaints of the wife and the family.
There had been a party with people from the office. I hadn't gone. His daughter had come. They both had ended up dead drunk. His wife went to fetch them, or rather her daughter. She left him there on the street. He managed to get to the nearest subway station, took a train and head home. He was so drunk and sleepy he had travelled three times the whole subway line. When he finally got home, he was sent really far away. He went to his parents for shelter and his father sent him away. He wandered for a while and then went back home. His wife told him to take his things and leave. He pleaded for shelter, for a time until he could find another place. So, he explained he had to be careful or his wife was capable of coming to make a fuss of the whole situation. He said he had to be a nice boy and behave properly.
I didn't know what to do or think. When my former husband had decided to play with another woman, he couldn't care less for my opinion. Why was this man giving his wife so much credit? Why was he so afraid of her? Why was he so interested in keeping her calm? Where was I standing?
No, he was very strange. He really ignored what he wanted. He just tried to avoid a problem. He wasn't interested in me.