That Was You?!

Originally published at This Is This. You can comment here or there.

He pointed to the book and asked "What are you going to do with that?"

It seemed a stupid question, but he's a really nice guy. Odd and funny, too. He asks, out loud and serious, questions like: "Have you ever punched a horse in the face?" Or "Have you ever seen a slug that's been stung by a wasp?"

He is also fascinated by Simon Weston, who he suspects is a fraud.

Anyway, me with a book and he goes: "What are you going to do with that?"

It seemed an odd question about a book, so I said sarcastically: "I'm going to fuck it and eat it." Then: "What do you think I'm- " but his face changed.

"Like a baby fox."

"Yeah," I say. "Like Viz, right?"

Reset the counter. Rewind to tweny years ago and a cartoon strip in Viz where two boys are in the frame, one with a boy and the other saying to him: "Is that a little puppy?" The other says: "No, it's a baby fox." The first kid goes: "Oh. What are you going to do with it." The other boy's expression changes and he says: "I'm doing to fuck it and eat it."
A friend pointed it out to me and we thought it was hilarious.

Fastforward back to 000 (so retro) and back in the office. Colleague says: "I wrote that."

"That was you? That's the greatest comic strip I ever read."

He explains he sent it in and then starts to reel off submissions they didn't print. Some I can't repeat even here.

But fucking hell, yeah? I've never quoted a comic in my life and then a like-minded friend from work makes a link with me as a fifteen year old on a train, reading a joke he sent in to a magazine which was relatively unknown then.

This is going into my list of coincidences, and adding weight to my theory that everything I have ever done is catching up with me in ever converging circles, like a whirlpool. And in the middle, where the energy is stronger and everything joins up - that's me.