As is often the case, my airport luggage delivery job took me to Canada a couple of days ago. I had just exited Highway 404 onto 16th Avenue heading for Spadina Street in Richmond Hill, Ontario, when I saw a large coyote trotting out of the woods to my right. Initially, I slowed down my truck because I didn't want to hit this beautiful animal. The coyote took notice of my slowing truck and ceased his trek just a few feet from the road. Then something happened that made me pull over to the side of the road and stop right in front of him. I was just so fascinated that he was making eye contact with me. I know you're not supposed to make eye contact with a wild coyote because they consider that to be a challenge of aggression, but I was safely inside my truck. We just sat there in calm silence, staring into each other's eyes for several minutes. Then, he did an about-face and began walking away. He turned to the side and held eye contact with me one more time before disappearing into the trees.
Some of you are probably going to think I am losing my mind... and maybe I am... but that coyote communicated something to me through his eyes. The encounter left me sitting in the truck with a strong unexplained ominous emotion. My mind felt like it was scrambling to figure out what the heavy feelings were all about. Don't ask me how, but I KNEW I was being warned about something.
I completed my delivery on Spadina Street... then made a couple more drops in Toronto, Mississauga, and Oakville before continuing on the QEW Highway back to Buffalo.
I stopped for coffee at Tim Horton's in the town of Grimsby... and that's when the trouble began. My cell phone rang. It was the guy I had just delivered to in Toronto. I remembered feeling a little awkward with the guy when he was signing for his luggage. Making eye contact with that Richmond Hill coyote was a first for me... but holding eye contact with people is something I make a point of doing. Like I said, eye contact with the guy in Toronto made me feel a bit awkward, but I didn't read too much into that. His name is "Kevin". I just figured maybe he was uncomfortable with people he didn't know.
"Where are you?" asked Kevin.
"Grimsby," I said.
"The airlines must have mistagged my luggage," he said. "I know I signed for it. It looks like my suitcase. But it's not mine. It's got someone else's stuff in it."
"Well, I guess I should take it back to the Buffalo Airport then," I said.
I told him I wasn't thrilled about driving all the way back to Toronto. It was already about 2 o'clock in the morning by then. He suggested we meet on one of those service road exits off the QEW near Burlington which was about half-way between Grimsby and Toronto. That made me a little nervous, however. I mean, hell, I didn't know this guy! For all I knew I could be meeting a crazed axe-murderer on some dark lonely road in the middle of the night. Is it possible that this is what the Richmond Hill coyote was trying to warn me about? So, I arranged to meet him in the parking lot of the Sheraton Hotel in Burlington. At least there would be other people around.
We ended up talking on our cell phones as we both drove to our destined location. He told me he was gay... and about all the relationship trouble he was having with his current boyfriend. When I told him I was gay too, he gave no discernible reaction to it. It was like he already knew it. But I don't know how he could have known since I'm not that outwardly detectable.
At the Sheraton, he got out of his car and climbed into my truck before I even had a chance to get out and meet him in the parking lot. I thought it was kind of strange that he didn't get the luggage out of his car right away, but I figured maybe he just wanted to continue our conversation and he would give me the suitcase when he was ready to leave.
He carried the conversation for nearly an hour... and I might add, he was making intense eye contact throughout our little rendezvous! Very different from the awkward glances he gave me earlier when I was standing at his door!
Suddenly, a pickup truck came swirling into the parking lot... skidding to a halt to my right... the passenger side of my truck... the same side at which I encountered the Richmond Hill coyote earlier in the evening. It was Kevin's jealously enraged boyfriend! All I could think of was, "WHY WHY WHY did I have to suggest we meet at the Sheraton!? It must look like Kevin and I were planning to book a room for a night of hot tawdry sex!"
Quite intimidatingly, Kevin's boyfriend didn't get out of his truck. Like the coyote, he just sat there staring at me with ferocious anger. His eyes never veered away. Not even a blink! I didn't keep constant eye contact with him. This was a NASTY coyote. I knew better than to make matters even worse with a challenge.
"Oh God!"
whispered Kevin. "I didn't think he would wake up. He
was sleeping when I left home. This is how he looks when he is
fucking me! He gets on top of me... stares me down... and starts
pounding me... breathing hard and growling like a dog!"
I felt like saying, "More like a COYOTE!" But I refrained.
I almost burst into laughter... it just seemed so insane! Instead of getting out of his truck, Kevin's boyfriend ("Brad") called him on his cell phone!
Kevin said to Brad, "Nothing is going on. The airlines made a mistake and I am just giving back the luggage that was wrongly delivered to me. You can go home now. I'll be back soon."
Atypically, jealous Brad insisted on waiting until he could follow Kevin all the way home. This seemed to stress Kevin out big-time.
"J," he said nervously, "Brad's going to kill me if he finds out I didn't really have any luggage to return to you. I'm going to step out of the truck now... and you have to drive away immediately. If he sees that you don't have any suitcases left in your truck, I'm a dead man!"
Not wanting to see any bloodshed, I decided to drive away and figure it all out on my own. I told him my name was "J" when I called from the Buffalo Airport to arrange delivery. Is he a "Daem11on's Journal" reader? I write about my job enough. Did he put two and two together? Did he already know I was gay? Was he just trying to hook up tonight? If so, why didn't he just tell me all these things?
The next day when Brad was at work, Kevin called to explain.
He didn't know about my website. He didn't know I was gay until I told him. "It was the way you looked into my eyes when you first showed up at my door," he said. "After you left, I just couldn't stop thinking that I needed to connect with you. Even if only to talk."
Well, cool. I now have a new friend in Toronto.
You're not supposed to make eye contact with a wild coyote. It's considered an act of aggression. A challenge. He might react with his own degree of aggression. Maybe he'll just come at you and bark/talk... like Kevin's response to my eye contact. Or he might snarl, growl, and go into attack mode like Brad seems prone to do.
I'm an eye contact person. And I get a wide range of reactions to it. I make a lot of friends that way. I also get not-so-nice reciprocation sometimes from people who do not want to be seen beyond a fleeting glance... at least from me. I guess the point is, eye contact IS an act of mild, friendly aggression for me. I DO challenge people to open up and let me in. So, I guess I have to accept the good with the bad if I choose to continue playing this tune.
The Richmond Hill coyote warned me in a gentle sort of way about the downside of making eye contact. It can open the door to all sorts of things... both good and bad. His wise words left me feeling far more cautious that night. It's probably the reason why I insisted on meeting Kevin at the Sheraton rather than some off-the-beaten-path service road. The coyote saved me a lot of grief! According to Kevin, Brad did not get out of his truck in the Sheraton parking lot because he knew if he did, he would probably take a baseball bat to my truck and then to me. There were too many possible witnesses around and he didn't want to be caught doing that.
Wanna hear something totally ironic? Brad's hometown is Richmond Hill!
