The Man

Just a story of hope.

 

            It was around 11:30am, my first class had let out early and I was wondering what the hell I was going to do for the next half hour. Nobody was around and there was nothing to do, but waste time. So with that conclusion, I decided to take a seat on a vacant bench. When I arrived, I let my bag fall and I began to sit down. In mid squat, a character entered. A man draped in an all gold sweat suit, with a backpack slung across one shoulder. As he approached me, I stood up straight, perplexed, he shook my hand and threw out a generic pleasantry. Since we were both in the same boat, no place to go, and nothing to do, we took a seat. He began to complain about his class and pulled out a pack of smokes.

            “Man, this f*****g class man, she don’t know what the hell she talkin bout.”

            “What class brother? What professor?”

            “Ah s**t man, I’m takin this sociology class and my professor, started talking about poverty, she was trying to down play crime in her neighborhood. Cover it up.”

            “How do you mean man, like…?”

            “She told us a story about how she witnessed two m***********s runnin down the street, while one of em was holding a hatchet, chasing the other one.”

            “Holy s**t, my man that’s fucked up.”

“Yeah she was trying to say that her neighborhood was high end, now how the f**k can that be high end, when you got two m***********s runnin round with a hatchet. I live in Riverside, RIVERSIDE, man and I never seen s**t like that.

“Riversi-.”

            “I mean, I live in the hood man and I know crime, I know that life, I understand it, but that ain’t me no more. These young kids, they come round tryin to push and I tell them straight up, so they all know. That when they come with that s**t around me they gettin snitched on. Im serious I don’t care man, I’m not getting sucked back in, I’m too old for that s**t.

            “Yeah man you just have to play the game to get anywhere in this world, that’s what I’m doing, that’s what schools all about, you just need that piece of paper.”

            He leaned in close and spoke low. “Man I used to have so much cash, I blew it on everything from shoes to underwear, but hey that was twenty years ago.” His face had a look of fleeting nostalgia, then he continued. “But you’re right man, you do gotta play the game and that’s exactly what I’m trying to do here.  

            “So what’s your major man, what are you trying to accomplish?”

            “Well I’m a licensed drug counselor and I only got two semesters left, but I wanna go all the way to the top and get my doctorate, like my brother. He just got his doctorate from U.B. and lives in Manhattan. I wanna help my neighborhood, ya know, I got so many people I see that just can’t deal, I just wanna help man.

            “Wow man, that’s awesome, that’s something good man, honestly.”

This man. This single random human, gave me hope that day. He gave me hope that the world isn’t lost, that people can change, be at the brink, pull back and do good. His story gave me hope in myself and also shamed me for believing my life was harder than it was. Plus, I couldn’t blame him for dealing or the life he led, because school is one of the biggest rackets of all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author's Note

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Reviews

[roarke]

I like it, good dialogue. But what about the teacher talkin' about what she don't know??? What about the story narrator? Just an innocent bystander or something more behind him, suddenly, unexpectedly exposed by the random stranger?? Bump it to the next notch, my man.