I am riding with a friend to a small town where we intend to spend the night and spend a day or two hiking the local woods. Not far from our destination a hitchhiker fgs us down. He also appears to be just a regur hiker without the “hitch.” We are going to the same pce, so we give him a ride.

  The hitchhiker makes a comment asking us (advising us) to check the time. All of our watches and clocks now dispy distorted, fractured, and shifting symbols instead of any proper indication of time. We grow uneasy. The remaining car ride takes far longer than it should. The hitchhiker seems to be in good spirits but answers no questions.

  We reach the small town that is our destination and the hitchhiker asks us to swing by the muddy ke near the town and drop him off at the dock there. We oblige him.

  There are in fact docks on the brown waters of the ke, and the docks do indeed have a number of small, private vessels. Those docks are also blocked off by a chain link fence.

  We watch as the hitchhiker undoes the lock on the fence, picks out a square-ish boat - more open aluminum tub with benches and a motor than anything else - unmoors it, and takes it out onto the water. My friend and I are certain we’re watching a theft, but it was not us committing it, and at least the unnerving hitchhiker is out of our hair.

  We try not to watch as the boat sinks almost immediately after clearing the end of the dock.