Is that ink red?.....

I never heard him enter my office. I just looked up and he was......there. He had a presence about him, no getting around that. He was dressed entirely in black except for a dress shirt that was blindingly white, buttoned up to his neck tightly with no tie. His complexion was swarthy and his hair, black. In his accent that had a familiar ring to it, he asked if I was a notary and I said I was. He asked if I would notarize two pieces of paper for him. I said yes, of course and asked him for picture identification. He said he would show me his passport.

He slowly set his black briefcase on the counter in front of my desk and opened it. He removed two pieces of paper and handed them to me. The contents were typewritten but not in English. It looked close to Russian but I knew it was not....maybe Croation, I was thinking.

I asked him the question that I always ask and am required to ask....."do you understand what you are signing?". I do not need to know the content, only that the person understands it. He looked at me and nodded yes. He reached into his briefcase and withdrew his passport and handed it to me. It was new. I glanced at his picture....his head was slightly down and his eyes were looking up. It was chilling. He signed his name and I compared the signatures.....they matched. Suppressing the eerie feeling I had, I notarized the documents and curiosity made me quickly scan the passport for his vitals before handing it back to him. Place of birth.....Romania.

Holy crap! Carpathian Mountains!....Transylvania!.... garlic, holy water, somebody gimme a mirror! So many thoughts were buzzing in my head, its a miracle I could sign anything.

Hmmmm.....no driver's license? He inquired what the charge would be and I advised it was free as a service to our residents. He left without a smile and only a solemn "thank you", as quietly and quickly as he had entered. I was afraid to look out the window for fear of seeing a black hearse. Man, I have just GOT to quit looking at scary movies!! Imagination in overdrive over here!

I wonder what those documents SAID?