I found him there by the river. A homeless man that has somehow lost his way.
I was mad as mad can be and I guess he saw it in my eyes. “something wrong my friend?” His voice was old and distant. It took a moment but I told him all about how my dad felt about my girlfriend and how he wanted me to leave her. “ What right does he have?” I remember saying, tears starting to form in my eyes. After a short pause, he said the words I still remember to this day. “Don’t be too mad at him, he is just trying to look out for you, besides, one day you’ll look back and see that he’s right. Trust me boy I was once just where you are now, mad as an old red hen at my daddy, standing at this very river and complaining at the stars.” I wanted to walk away but something made me stay.
“Set with me a while, what do ya say?” I sat there on a rock beside the river and listened to that old homeless man's stories. He told me about his mom and pops, about his kids, and why he was homeless. I hung on every ward, there was something special about that old man I just couldn’t figure out then. I went back to that very spot on the river every day, we would talk and laugh and laugh, I even saw him cry once though he tried to hide it. We became really good friends.
After a long talk one day, just as the sky begins to change into that purple-red color it always did that time of year. I told him I better get home mom will kill me if I’m out too late. He gave me kind of half smile, his eyes looked as if he knew something but didn’t want to say. “ Hey boy, give your daddy a hug, tell him you love him, you may not know this now but with any luck, when you all grown, you’ll still call on him when something goes wrong or that love of your life leaves you, you’ll still need your daddy long after all is said in done,” I will. I told him, See ya tomorrow?
He just shook his head looking up to the sky. I wanted to ask what was wrong but decided to let him be.
I went back that next day just as I always did and he was there, laying on the same rock I sat on the day we met. He was gone. I put that old man in the ground next to the river laying each stone on top with all the love I had.
I still go back to see him whenever I’m in town. Sometimes he is there sometimes has not. I miss that old man.
I left him there by the river.
A homeless man that has found his way.
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