Hunting Humans

I had been lost in what I call my creative world when I pushed my shopping away from the cashier and almost rammed into this bigger-than-life man wearing a Texas-style cowboy hat.
Being an author, I multitask when dealing with real-world tasks like grocery shopping. Those times are used to plot story lines out using the right side of my brain. My left-brain deals with the mundane things like whether to buy peas or corn for dinner. 
    Multitasking is an efficient use of time. I can decide where the next body will appear in my WIP (work-in-progress) or how my heroine will meet the handsome stranger in chapter three. An efficient system except when the two worlds (my fictional world and my real world) collide into each other, like today.
   Unfortunately, Mister Texas transplant had not yet gotten the memo that warned him that he was now in Florida and to watch out for “Your Author Friend” when in the grocery store. 
   I pulled my cart out from the cashier, still plotting my story and not looking where I was going, he zigged, I zagged, and we managed to avoid a shopping cart disaster.
   Snapping out of my writing world and back to the here-n-now world I mumbled, “Sorry.”
I have to pay attention.
   The towering cowboy spoke over the top of my apology in a smooth Texan drawl, “Sorry Ma’am,” strode toward the front door and disappeared outside.
   When I reached outside the grocery store the cowboy was standing by the curb, waiting as cars breezed by, never slowing down for him to cross. I sheepishly pulled my cart next to him and waited, too. I looked over his way, sizing up his purchase. Inside his cart were three gigantic 30-pound size bags of dog food.
   “My that’s a lot of dog food,” I commended. Wanting to show him I could be civil by making light conversation.
   Why I’m compelled to have complete strangers think good of me, I don’t know. It’s silly, but it has always been part of my makeup.
   “What kind of dog do you have? He must eat a lot.” I said. I love dogs and figured he must, too, and I thought I could change the image he must have of me after my rudeness earlier. A dog lover must be a good person, don’t you think?
   “I have five, their hunting dogs.”
   Living in Florida, most people do boating, skiing, or hang out at the beach for fun. Floridians usually have little interest or time for hunting. However, his answer had piqued my curiosity and ignited my crazy author mind again.
   Accept for the statewide alligator-hunting season, which begins sometime in August and goes until November first, hunting is not a typical topic of discussion. Of course, there is a short time when hunting pythons in the everglades are permitted and announced on the evening news—but my mind went to gators. Then I thought, people don’t take dogs to track gators.
   So you can understand, I just had to ask, “What do you hunt?”
   He nonchalantly answered, “Humans.”
   Humans! I was Shocked. I responded, “Oh, really.” True to form as an author, my mind went to the obvious, he’s a serial killer. No, he’s into human trafficking.
   All right, I might have overreacted. Without missing a beat, my mind raced again. Maybe, he is like that guy in the show, “Dog, the Bounty Hunter.”
   I took a breath and exhaled. “So, are you a bounty hunter?”
   My mind still raced with options. Perhaps he was like the character in the television series, Dexter. Of course, Dexter only kills “bad” people who had escaped legal punishment for heinous crimes. His character originated from novels written by Florida author, Jeff Lindsay and I’m familiar with the story. The character, Dexter, also lives in Florida and gets rid of his dead bodies by dumping them in the Gulf Stream. My Texan seemed too pleasant and nice to be a serial killer, even one who kills only bad people.
   “No, Ma'am. I track missing people. My best dog, Max, is too old now so I don’t take him out anymore, he’s retired. Although before, when he was younger, he found a 2-year-old who wandered off in the New Mexico desert. Max found him, I put that boy on his back and he carried that baby back to the campsite.”
   “Wow. What a wonderful job that you are doing with your dogs.”
   “Yep, well this is my truck. Nice talking to you, ma’am. Have a good day.”
I walked to my car, my mind now at high speed, but this time, I was casting Mister Texas in a future story.
   Often, my readers will ask how I get inspired and I answer, “Inspiration is all around, you just have to look for it.”