At sunset, I was walking Luke east along Sunningdale when I heard a ruckus ahead at the cross-street (Monroe). Suddenly, a kid about 10 raced around the corner running in my direction. He was dressed as Batman (the Dark Knight, not Adam West’s). I thought of Abed, from Community, who was Batman in at least one episode. Soon behind Batman ran in hot pursuit an older boy with a long black wig on. As Batman passed me, he roared at me. I walked on, watching for evidence of bullying but otherwise letting the boys be. More boys rounded the corner on bikes and skateboards, stragglers rather than pursuers, several with cellphones recording the event. (On YouTube, the part of the seemingly clueless old man is played by Mark Hinton.) 

As I turned that same corner, the whole pack turned back and swept down toward the end of a culdesac, where a party appeared to be in progress. I left it all behind. A couple of blocks later, Big Wig and Batman rode past me on a bicycle built for two, an absurd postscript. The only thing I heard was the young Dark Knight saying “that’s not how it works.” They turned at the end of the block and passed me again.

All amusing enough until more than an hour later I happened to turn the TV on and happened to flip the channel exactly in time to see Abed as Batman, rescuing Pierce and Jeff from the collapsing furniture fort in the study room. You don’t have to know any of these characters to imagine my amazement with the synchronicity.