There’s a guy at my gym who is just like the Joker from Batman. He has crazy messy hair that has grey and black streaks. He wears messy clothing, and he jumps rope like a mad man who has no method, no rhythm or rhyme. He has a stare that could probably burn other people’s eye sockets out, except he never makes eye contact with you or anyone; he just stares into space, in his own workout zone, intensely training for whatever it is he is strenuously working out for.

Joker has been annoying me recently because he loves to maniacally jump rope right in front of my favorite crosstrainer/elliptical. I’ve been running on treadmills for most of this week and usually do half time on one and then half time on the other, but this week, I haven’t even had the option to use the cross trainer because he’s been blocking it. He can’t even see when people are approaching him, and I’m terrified of getting slapped with his jump rope.

I told Bill, this guy I talk to at the gym, that the Joker scares me. “Did you ask him to move?” he asked me.

I hesitated. “No,” I said sheepishly.

“Yvonne, maybe you could just wave and say, ‘hey, can you please move?'” Bill said to me smiling.

I don’t really like to talk to people at the gym unless I absolutely have to. I’m hot, sweaty, have no makeup on, and I just want to do my workout, shower, and leave. Is it such a crime to just expect Joker to have common sense and do his jump rope routine far away from the machines that other clients would want to use?