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place to eat my lunch. As I left the park and began crossing the street, the last thing I saw was a teenager startling the crows and offering the strange man a waffle from a plastic plate.

I saw the man again a few days later. It was Saturday, and I was taking a walk. Again, it was about lunchtime, and I had decided to cut through the park. I could tell the man from last time was there before I even entered the park. He was standing exactly where he was last time, still staring at the sky, and yelling every few minutes. However, one thing that changed.

"BURRITO!" he shouted at the sky.

I raised an eyebrow at this new refrain, and started to hurry across the tiny path that cut through the center of the park. As I walked, I watched with interest as a woman wrapped in a knit sweater offered him a burrito wrapped in foil. He grabbed it from her and muttered a "thank you" that was muffled quickly as he opened the wrapping and shoved most of it into his mouth. He sat down on the grass and chewed happily.

As I walked past, a large crow moved craftily towards the strange man, who was ignoring everything except his lunch. It froze for a second, then darted forward, grabbing the foil from his hands. I was astonished it could get it's beak around the bundle, but it did so and flew away, taking the man's food with it.

The man rushed after it yelling "no! no!" but he was not nearly fast enough to catch it. The crow flew right to the top branches of a tall oak tree at the edge of the park, and sat down. Below it, the man's face resembled nothing so much as that of a small red-faced boy as he shouted and raved at the crow who had stolen his lunch. After a few minutes the man calmed down, and went back to the place he had been standing before. He looked purposefully up at the sky, his eyes focused on nothing, and shouted, with conviction, "BURRITO!"

By this point I was almost out of the park, but I felt sorry for him, and began to move back towards him. I had not started my lunch yet, and had two sandwiches with me. I went over to him, and pulled out a sandwich to offer it to him. To my astonishment he suddenly became furious. "ABSOLUTELY NOT!" he roared, "Does that look like a BURRITO to you! No! No! No! I want a burrito! I must have a burrito! The world must give me nothing else!"

To say I was taken about would be an understatement. It took me a few seconds to collect my wits. "Why?" I asked. The man looked surprised by this. "Because it's what I need, and it is what will be provided."

"But

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