introducing the masked stranger

you see, there's this masked stranger that i keep running into. i'm not really sure exactly when i started seeing him or where he came from or what the point of the mask is, really. i thought it might have had something to do with the unpopular law that passed during the student protests; like the mask was his own form of civil disobedience. now i'm not so sure. all i know is that i can no longer go a day without seeing him. usually, it'll be when i'm driving back from the pad in the late afternoon. i'll be staring absentmindedly out the passenger window and then i'll spot him walking down the sidewalk past Jarry Park, wearing those same black pants with that same unbuttoned matching black vest over his bare chest. and the black glossy Zorro mask, of course. the outfit never changes. and he always looks like he's grinning - not so much with his mouth but with the eyes hidden behind that mask. (is it possible to even know that?) whatever his reasons, political or otherwise, he always seems to be enjoying himself. especially when he's doing something that is outside of his own extreme ordinary - walking toward a grocery store parking lot, for example. i wonder if he just enjoys the extra attention. (because God knows just seeing him walking down St. Laurent may be indeed becoming strangely normal for us neighbourhood regulars). this morning, he actually had a bat slung over his shoulder. which might have had me a little more concerned, except i saw he was making his way to the baseball diamond. apparently for some solo batting practice. which makes perfect sense, i guess.