It's a sign
There's a sign above my head. It's probably very large - people seem to notice it fairly quickly. I'm not exactly sure what it says, but it's something like: ask me, I'll help!
I've known about it for years. I've never seen it though - my guess is that there's some sort of team of goblins who hide it whenever I look in a mirror or have a photo taken. But I now it's there. Why else would random strangers walk up to me in a crowded street and ask directions? Why pick me, of all the people available?
I was reminded of the existence of the sign earlier this week when, walking down the street on my way home from work, on the phone explaining to B2 why I was late (again), a couple walked up to me and asked directions to a local restaurant. What made this particularly unusual was that one of my workmates had happened to leave work right after me, and was only 5 metres behind me. Why didn't they ask him? He wasn't on the phone. The answer, I must assume, is that he didn't have a sign above his head.
I don't mind too much. In fact, I've come to embrace my destiny, and if I see people wandering around the streets looking lost (and especially if they're frantically looking at a map), I'll even wander up to them before they've noticed the sign, and offered them a hand.
I even did it once while on a weeks holiday in Austria. Walking down the street, I saw a couple of obvious tourists looking at a map, then up and down the street in perplexity. I walked up to them and asked them if they needed help (in German) then realised how silly that was, since that was about the limit of my German. I may have been able to understand what they were asking to find, but my reply would have been limited to pointing and hand waving. Fortunately they were Americans, and could understand my English well enough to find their destination.
No, I don't mind the existence of the sign so much, I just wish I could see it. After all, what if one day the goblins get annoyed with me for some reason and decide to change it to something horrible?
