Nightly Encounter

It was a rainy midnight. Caroline walked hurriedly, shielding her face by dragging down the hood of her jacket.

All the town seemed to have become one huge puddle, splashing the passers-by with a muddy spray.

Beneath a small bridge sat a peculiar figure, pale faced, blueish glowing and dripping wet.

"You will catch a cold, if you don't find a warm, dry place", the girl said. "How long have you been sitting here?"

The odd man lifted his grotesquely swollen head and gave her a look from a pair of faded jelly-like eyes.

"Since 1784", he replied.