Not A Big Thing At The Time

A simple thing past...

Not a big thing at the time...

It was not a big thing at the time; it was a beautiful sunny morning, and I had ditched school and was walking along the railroad tracks, going south, I think. On my left was a paved two-lane roadway, and by the way it mimicked the tracks, it was hard to tell which came first, the roadway or the tracks.

      On my right, were orange groves for as far as you could see. Dark green leaves, cool shade under those heavy limbs.

      As I walked, at a glance, I saw a small boy, about my size, dart from the edge of the great grove, and disappear into its thick darkness.

      I walked up to the spot carefully, and finally, I came to where the grove had thinned just enough for me to see into and under the canopy. I could see people, tents, and kids playing and running around. A few were even hiding behind trees looking at me walk by.

      That vision has stayed with me my whole life, and even today, I can see it clearly in my mind’s eye.

      It was not until weeks later, I mentioned it to my father; and he said, “Stay away from there, those people have their own troubles”. I agreed never to go back.

      Not until two years later when I overheard someone say, “Those albinos that lived by the tracks in the groves have moved on. You do know “they can’t go out in the sun; they will burn up”

      Albinos, I had never heard of them before, and all of a sudden, sadness and grief overtook me, and I felt the worst for it.

      All these years, and while walking by, I never knew those people needed my help, I saw nothing, I never asked, I never talked to them; I just turned away and kept walking down those tracks.
 
      I will never forget the view under that canopy, a person can never have too many friends. The End.

Author's Note

Sometimes looking back for something simple, when all around you becomes challenging, I am often lucky enough to remember an instance, a momentary flash of what was, not necessarily what should have been.