Kid! He is looking at you.

The other morning on my way to run an errand, I stumbled on something I had never seen before.

Even with proper directions, I managed to get lost on a dead end street in my old neighborhood. Like the old man who lost his horse in a Chinese fable, the wrong turn I made on a secluded street did make me tread a few extra blocks that I did not need. But it also led me to an enigmatic yard ornament.

On that crowded street teeming with parked cars, I saw an unusual carving in a front yard of a vintage house. On the top of a cement pedestal, there is a human-size face carved on a block of earth-tone substance. The simple hairdo this serene face wears resembles a clergy or a Christian monk.

We often find gnomes or pink flamingos in people’s yard. So it is not common to see a carving of a human face in the middle of an overgrown private garden.

Another unusual thing about that gentleman’s face on the stone pedestal is its interactive eyes. We were exchanging glances while I was walking by them. They were looking at me. Their attentive gazes followed me until I stepped onto the sidewalk in the front of their neighbor’s property. These watchful eyes of the carving were not intimating. But they did make me feel somewhat eerie and unsettled.

Unfortunately, the neighborhood was deserted at that time of the day. So I did not get to ask the passers-by if they knew the story why the owners of this house would choose a carving of a gentleman’s face for a yard ornament? - Ayee