I had heard people say that people who are deprived of one of there senses develop a sixth sense and that their other senses become more acute. The short tale I am about to tell really brought this home to me.
One damp afternoon I was patrolling in Oak Tree Road in Trentham when I noticed that the door to the Rugby Club House was wide open. No one as far as I knew visited the Club during the week in the afternoon. I set off to investigate. As I got closer to the building I could hear the sound of a Piano. It was not a tune that was being played , more like odd notes being played at random. I entered the building and walked along the corridor, passed the changing rooms and into the Bar Area. Ahead of me I could see a man sitting at the Piano. I recognised him as a local Blind Person who was in fact a Piano Tuner.
I stopped in the doorway and never uttered a sound. He stopped playing and without turning round said “Good afternoon Officer”. I went cold. I found the thought that someone I knew could not see and to whom I had communicated nothing as I thought, but who knew I was a Policeman most eerie.
I asked him how he knew it was a Policeman who had come into the room and he told me that he could tell by the rustle of my Mac and my measured footsteps!!
It certainly made me stop and think.