I guess there’s a mad old lady in every neighbourhood. I suppressed a sigh when I found ours on my doorstep.
‘It’s him’ she said, trusting yesterday’s edition of The Times at me. She had drawn a wobbly circle around a photograph. ‘It’s Mr Dunphy. From number twenty two.’
I took the paper. Seems a schoolteacher, a Mr Brady, had been jailed for two years for collecting inappropriate images of children. I looked at the picture again. It did look a little like Mr Dunphy from number twenty two. Obviously it was not him, as the article was about a man who had a different name and who was currently in prison.
‘I am going around to everyone who has children,’ she explained. ‘Make sure you keep them away from him.’
I thanked her, assured her that I would and she went on to hammer at the next door down. ‘Poor Mr Brady,’ I thought. No one should have this sort of thing said against them because they look a little like someone else.
Still, I made a note in my head to tell the kids to cross to the other side when passing his house.
[amazon_link asins=’0679723161′ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’200wordshort-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’e4474f33-5516-11e8-ac99-79d8b9823295′]