Had a bizzare experience last night. I went to see the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith (which, by the way, was pretty decent). My girlfriend and I showed up about 20 minutes before the show started, so we picked out some seats and then each went to the restroom in turn while the other watched the seats. When it was my turn, I was walking up the aisle and I saw a girl named Meg from my old hall. It was funny, because I had recently been wondering how she was doing. I always figured that of anyone in this particular hall, she was one of the most likely to be able to get out at some point. She seems strong and intelligent.
At any rate, I couldn't help but lock eyes with her as we passed, scanning the face to be sure it was really her. It was a strange sensation, because at first I had the Witness reaction of shock and nervousness on seeing a disfellowshipped person. Of course, I immediately recognized that that nonsense did not apply to me, so I smiled to myself and walked on. Aftter I passed, I could her a voice saying, "Oh my gosh! That guy was..." trailing off.
But then the weirdest thing happened. I'm coming back from the restroom, walking down the aisle looking for my girlfriend. It turns out that Meg has come with a group, which has sat in my row and the one behind it. Meg is sitting literally three chairs away from me. She was turned around talking to her sister (it took me several minutes to recognize her sister), so I silently stepped around her and sat down in my seat. I felt a little awkward about the thing, even though I know that of either side it is they that should feel awkward. I wonder if I should try to break the awkwardness by at least saying hello, so that we don't have to pretend that we don't see each other, so I keep looking over, waiting for someone to make eye contact with me, but they studiously avoid looking at me.
Soon more members of the group show up. I can hear bits and pieces of their conversation: "Oh, I saw you in service today!" "Oh, I haven't met you yet...What hall are you in?" A former roommate shows up and sits behind me and two seats to my right. I'm looking back, observing their faces, and seriously, not a single one of them looks at me. We are physically six feet apart.
They end up staying there for the entire movie (and good for them). Since they are blocking our access to the aisle, we wait for the group to leave before getting up. It's cool, because I like to watch the credits anyway. So we watch almost all the credits and then get up to leave. As we walk outside, standing in a circle in exactly the place we need to walk by, are the Witnesses. At this point, I'm thinking this is just too much. So as I walk by, I wave at Meg and mouth, "Hi!" Of course, she appears to be oblivious, but I'm sure she saw me.
I guess it was the first time I've been shunned by a group of Witnesses like that. It seemed so weird. The strangest thing was that it somehow made me feel like I needed to avoid talking to them, when obviously that is not the case. I guess part of me just wanted to respect what I imagined they hoped would happen. But at the same time, I'm really glad I waved as I walked by at the end. At least one of the sides had the decency to acknowledge the other.
Anyway, just thought I'd share!
SNG