They say small towns are friendly places. They say that the people in them make more hospitable neighbors than cold anonymous city folk.

If you live in a small town but aren’t originally from there, you know it’s not that simple.

Of course, many people are friendly. Others are actually hostile; they’ll pointedly ignore you if you say hello. They’ll continue this treatment even after they’ve seen you around for twenty years.

Then you have those who are in between – they’ll greet you warmly if they’re alone, and snub you if they’re with friends. (Often their friends are the usually hostile folks).

And then there are those that you just can’t figure out at all.

Like this one guy who I see around all the time – a lean, bearded fellow, probably in his forties, who mostly wears a sleeveless t-shirt and dirty jeans, or a flannel shirt if it’s cooler. Sometimes he’ll give me a big smile and a warm hello. Other times, I’ll greet him, and he’ll scowl at me like he wants to hit me.

For years, I’ve encountered him regularly on the street within two or three blocks of my house. I kept wondering, what IS the story with this guy? Whether I said hello or not, it seemed equally likely that I’d offend him.

But one day I went to the convenience store on the corner, and I saw him at the counter, buying cigarettes. He broke into a grin, and said, “Hey, buddy, how ya doin’?” I said hi, turned to walk up the aisle toward the cold beverage refrigerators in the back – and there he was in front of me, scowling. I did a double take. At the same moment his expression softened, and I heard him cracking up with laughter BEHIND me.

I turned around, and there was the friendly him, still at the counter, laughing with the checkout girl. The hostile him was now laughing too, behind me.

That was when I finally realized that they were twins. They also both wore beards, short hair, and the same sort of clothes. This kind of thing probably happened to them all the time.

So that cleared up the mystery. However, it didn’t solve my problem.

I still can’t tell them apart. When I run into either one of them alone, I still have no idea whether or not to say hello.

© 2008 by Jack Veasey