Bad Pennies Always Find Each Other

"Don't ever let another man interrupt your date. Well, unless you're married or just plain sick of her."
--Rufus Oglethorpe

Six years later and a thousand miles removed from the last place I had seen Rufus, while I was eating crab at a restaurant in St. Petersburg, Florida with a lovely Cuban girl, the old man sat down at the table next to us.

I did not immediately recognize him.

His beard was still there but his clothes were St. Pete camouflage: vintage old hippie. He had the funky colorful T-shirt, the sandals, the earring and even the pony tail. When I'd met him, his beard was bushy and stubborn and his hair cropped. When I'd left him, the beard was gone. And that day in St. Petersburg, his beard was trimmed and even a little glossy.

Really he could have been anyone.

But I guess everybody is anyone and anyway, I digress.

"Excuse me sir," he said to me from his seat after my date and I had finished eating. "You got any of those really quick cigarettes. I do believe you owe me one."

I looked at him and the memory clicked easily.

"Sure thing, Rufus," I said.

"You got a good memory, Nathan."

I handed him a smoke, watched as he lit it and waited for him to say something next.

Instead he leered at my date and said, "Darling," and made a motion like one would if one were tipping a cap. Rufus wore no cap.

"Wait," I said. "Sit down. Have a drink with us."

"Boy," he said. "Don't ever let a man interrupt your date like that. Ain't you got no common sense?"

After he left, which he did quickly, my date asked, "Who was that?"

"Oh that..." I trailed off.

I was distracted by some commotion in the barroom.

"Where did that old codger go? This credit card didn't clear."

"Excuse me," I said to my date.

It turned out that Rufus had dined and dashed. It took some fanagling, but eventually I traded my paying cash for his meal for his credit card.

That's how I learned his last name was Oglethorpe. And that's how I tracked him down.