Innocent and Pure. Guess who?

Just a few days before Christmas, I ventured out into central London. Crazy, I know. But I had no choice: as usual, I left it till the last moment. A few days before then, we had heavy snow in our suburbs. I shall discuss the impact of weather conditions on the UK transport network another time. Maybe, in my next post.

But that day was just gorgeous. The snow was everywhere, and the sun was out. Something Russians consider normal is a special pre-Christmas magic for the Brits.

I had to get all the way to Covent Garden, as Husband developed a passion for Carhartt clothes. And of course, we don’t have Carhartt anywhere near us. So I took the tube into London.

Making my way through the over-crowded streets, trying to focus, I suddenly got stopped by a stranger. If you have lived in a big city, you know that being stopped by a stranger on a street is not a good thing. I glanced at the guy, and he appeared pretty normal. That, of course, did not mean anything. He started talking and my first thought was that he was trying to sell me something. I then realized he was not asking for any money. He said something about me walking out of that shop, and how he noticed me because I had a special aura.

Ah,- I thought to myself, -he is not trying to sell anything; he is just crazy and will now stab me with a knife. And nobody will notice what exactly happened, as they all rush about in the pre-Christmas shopping frenzy.

But he had no knives in his hands. He just kept telling me something about people and auras. He said most people get born with a clean aura but it grows negative with age, but me...I was innocent and pure, he said. I laughed nervously. He said he was an accountant these days, but eight years ago, he used to practice meditation. And he just saw this amazing aura around me.

OK, now he is going to ask me for some money- I thought, smiling and nodding (trying to look both polite and in a rush to be somewhere), because he needs it to support some aura-cleansing school of his.

But then he just said “Bless you, have a nice Christmas!” and disappeared in the sea of shoppers.

Excited and grateful that he was not going to kill me, I waved and wished him a great Christmas too; and walked off, glancing behind me. Once I was sure he was not following, I realized I had not considered another, more realistic option.

That’s it! - I thought, unzipping my bag to grope inside it- he was a distraction thief. He was bullsh**ting me about auras, whilst his partner was stealing my wallet. But everything was still intact inside the bag.

So I kept walking, smiling. The cynic in me was convinced something just did not go according to the plan. Perhaps, I was holding my bag too close to me, or was not distracted enough. But that little innocent and pure one was asking in a tiny sheepish voice inside my head- But what if? What if he was just a nice guy, who believed in good auras? And what if he just really liked mine? That is not entirely impossible, is it?