Imagine walking down a dark alley-way lined with brick buildings, garbage and junk. Then, at the end, a light turns on, flickering. Under that is a man dressed in old clothes with holes, no socks or shoes….

He is sitting on a grocery bag. He has a beard and scratches on his face, bruises too. He’s crying. He has a dog with scraggly fur and only three legs. I walk to him. He waves at me but with only three fingers. He smiles with black teeth. I ask about the scars. He says it was a cat. I ask why he is not on the street asking for money. He answers that he does not want money from people. I slowly take a green twenty-dollar bill out of my pocket, my week’s pay. I tell him that he is the only person on the street that I’ll give money to. Then the light starts to flicker again and the man crawls back into his box. The light turns off. I think what my life would be like if I was him. As I walk away, I think about how this man had changed my life.

Continue reading “If I Were Him.”