The second coincidence

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Last week I was working at an event where we were at the registration desk most of the time and nearby was a drink kiosk. I chatted briefly with the man running that (Tom); he told me he was from the south coast but was staying with a friend somewhere, although he didn’t actually know where, only that it took him about an hour to walk in! The next evening I left work at about 6:30 and didn’t have time to go home before heading straight to a meeting at 7pm at the village hall. That finished at 10 so by the time we had cleared everything away it was about 10:30 before I headed for home. I had all my stuff from the day with me, and my bicycle, but feeling rather tired after the long day I decided I couldn’t be bothered to cycle back and I would just walk and push my bike, it’s only about 10 minutes home. As I walked up the narrow lane I thought maybe I should get a light just in case a car came the other way, since it was very dark and I was dressed completely in black. As I stopped to rummage through my bag a man came walking up the lane behind me. He said hello as he passed – probably so as not to scare me – then a few steps further on he stopped and said “Actually I’m a bit lost, I’ve just got off the bus and I’ve got no idea where I am. I’m looking for no. 67 such-and-such road.” That was just a little further on than my house, but it’s difficult to explain since the same road name refers to four separate sections, so I said I would just walk with him. Then as we started off I suddenly exclaimed “It’s you!” It was Tom from the drink kiosk, but we hadn’t recognised each other in the dark! I showed him the way back to his host’s house and he was very relieved. Next morning when Tom arrived he gave me a big hug, saying he was so lucky to meet me the night before otherwise he would probably still be wandering about the woods in the dark. But the even funnier thing was that in the morning before Tom arrived, I was telling my colleague what a funny coincidence that I had met the drink kiosk man on a dark lane in the middle of the night (well, almost) and we laughed about it. Then a short while afterwards a man who looked rather like Tom arrived and my colleague – a very outspoken sort of person – pounced on him and said “I hear you followed my co-worker home last night!” The poor chap looked quite scared, it wasn’t Tom but a complete stranger! He was probably terrified he was being accused of stalking Luckily everyone saw the funny side once it was explained