Someone from the little medieval fight in the park gang was injured this weekend so I moved it to provide some first aid (knee injury). I ended up just kind of hanging out w him afterwards to make sure he was fine & after about 10 minutes, he told me that he'd been seeing strange things happening.
I said I had been, too, but what I thought he was going to say was not even what I ever imagined. He told me how the people he knew were behaving differently now, like they had completely different personalities. Chagrined, I told him that I'd seen that happen, too.
I told him about my rheumatologist as an example & he agreed that was weird. But, he said, he'd seen them change even bigger than that. Like physically change. One of his friends that he'd known since they were in the 1st grade had changed to now be 20 years old again, dropping away decades. 👀
He told me that he'd been seeing that happen or people he had known for a long time just disappear as if they had never existed at all. He said that he'd finally figured out the pattern & it was when he saw a specific steel truck and a few specific cars, then the timeline would change. 😰
He was totally calm the entire time even though he also seemed distressed & contemplative. I asked him when this started & he said 2 years ago. I said that he was taking all of it well & he said that last year, he was terrified & scared but now, he was dealing with it better. 😭
He told me that he had finally figured out what was happening to him. He was quantum jumping. Every time that steel truck appeared, he'd quantum jump into another universe where everyone would change. I explained to him that some of the people changing & disappearing might be more explainable. 🤞
I explained to him about how, for some people, their personalities might change after COVID infection. He asked me how often it happens & I told him that I didn't know but I'd seen it several times with people I knew. I offered that maybe some of the people who'd changed might just have gotten sick.
As I explained it, he listened sincerely, nodding, and said, "maybe...maybe...", contemplating the possibility. He was calm the whole time, accepting of his new reality. In his mind, he was adjusting to the framework of being a quantum jumper. Instead, he was adjusting to probable psychosis.
Joined this group as an escape. Didn't expect to be confronted with that. I feel so terrible for him. I don't know if he got sick & had this happen to him or if his mind broke from the strain of everything. I just don't know but it was honestly heartbreaking. 😭