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The Sock Man

hungryghostredman

hungryghostredman

Bluelighter
Joined
May 19, 2006
Messages
353
Location
a suburb of Liverpool ,England
He was pushing a shopping trolley; we heard it rattling over the cobblestones and turned to look. It was half full of multicoloured cloth balls and as he approached we could see that they were socks. On the front of the trolley was a hand written sign:
"Give socks to help fight Cancer"
it was crudely sellotaped to the front.
We dropped the frisbee and waited. He had very thick glasses. He trundled to a halt in front of us and without preliminaries demanded
"Can I have your socks please? It's for Charity like. I've got to collect as many pairs of socks with pictures of their owners...it's sponsered like"
We noticed he was carryimg a Polaroid camera. Noone seemed inclined to give up their footwear
"I'll pay you like...two quid a pair."
This was a different proposition. Five of us, all skint. Tenner between us we could get another eighth. We all removed our socks and handed them over; it was a little more complicated than that, we had to strike a pose with the socks either side of our head whilst he took a picture of our smiling faces.
Happy days. As he rattled off we wondered what he wanted the socks for; how was BUYING the socks going to raise money for cancer?
 
Definitely weird... and I'm left wanting to know why he wanted the socks. Can you put me out of my misery? ;)
 
Well....at first I theorised that it was some kind of sock voodoo...you know, that if you possess someones hair or fingernails or clothing you can control them with voodoo; I suspected that he was knitting a pair of 'master' socks containing a thread from each pair collected. One night when the moon was full he'd put them on and all over the country his army of sock zombies would rise.
The truth was more mundane. He had a foot fetish. Some of my mates were BMX/skateboarders in the 'Jackass' tradition and used to enjoy doing fucked up things (smashing bottles over each others heads and the like). He would pay them to go round to his flat and rub their sock clad feet over his face. £10. Sometimes he'd let them beat him with their belts and punch him in the face.
A couple of years later he was arrested and sent to prison for four years (falsely collecting for charity; corrupting innocents etc.) The newspapers showed pictures of his flat: full of socks basically. I thought the sentence was a little harsh; its not like he was stealing the socks.
 
Sounds like something out of Irvine Welsh!

Crazy story - I really think you should consider turning it into a full-blown short story, including all the details in your last post.
 
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