This reminds me of a terrible moment from my past.

A then-girlfriend and I were at the local Wal-Mart (don’t judge, no better places were open and nearby) at around 11PM, before the Plague Times, when I had to hit the head. I go into the front restrooms to tap a kidney when I notice the stall past the urinals is occupied; no big deal. Then I noticed there were two sets of feet.

Both facing the same direction.

Being a non-bigot non-prufe, I do my business and go to wash my hands, when I hear a VERY loud ‘HNNNNNGH’ from the stall. Okay, yeah. No comment, just wash and GTFO.

I rendezvous with the girlfriend and she asks what’s with the look on my face. I start to lead her away before even considering the idea of explaining, and before we could get out of range, the explanation reveals itself. It turns out it was a young man, maybe late teens at oldes. Tow-headed, very blue eyes, EXTREMELY developmentally impaired. His guardian - I presume father - follows closely, looking utterly miserable. I didn’t say anything but the youth did anothoer grunting bellow and I unwittingly winced. The guardian also cringed, and we briefly made eye contact. He sorts shrank and dragged his ward off, who was loudly happy and oblivious.

They turned out to be regular odd-hours features. The kid would always wave excitedly if he saw us from the McDonald’s up front, and his guardian at least seemed relieved that we didn’t say anything unkind. Poor dude, was probably mortified by the prospect of a misunderstanding, especially here in the Texas hellscape. Not helped that the guardian had an extreme case of pedo-stash and rat-faced nebbishness.

I can only imagine how bad it could have been had it been anyone else.