A week ago I "rescued" someone. "Help!" I heard and looked around. "Help me! I'm stuck!" It was a man further down the hill, calling and waving, so I waved back at him and walked over, wondering in what way he was stuck. It seemed he had managed to unstick himself because he also started walking towards to me, but he did want help walking up the hill. "The pavements are so bad." So he took my elbow, blind person style (he wasn't blind) and we walked up the hill following his directions. I'm not entirely sure what his walking problem was, he had a stick but didn't use it and in fact walked quite fast, although with a very heavy, flat-footed gait. Probably not so much a physical problem as a panic or crisis of confidence. He told me about his day and his life. "I've got learning difficulties. Can you understand me?" he repeated several times. I'm not sure whether he meant could I understand his speech or his words (both were clear). When we reached a bigger, flatter road he walked off. "I'm alright now!" Somehow the whole episode made me feel vaguely suspicious of I don't quite know what – not of him, I believed everything he said, but somehow of helping him. Odd feeling.
