The Forgotten Hero

A Story by K.M. Young

A true story from my past about a man the world forgot.

I remember back when I was eighteen. I worked at an unsavory burger joint in Colorado, working my way through a college course that I would drop out of only 1 year later. But this story isn’t about me; it’s about a man the world forgot, a man society deemed unimportant, a man that taught me an important valuable lesson.

His name was Ben, or so at that time we all thought. He could have been any homeless man in Denver. He was lanky and gaunt; with disheveled grey-blonde hair that was matted more than it was straight, pouring out from under a Vietnam survivor baseball cap. He was dressed with dirty clothes that would have been unfit for a sewer cleaner to wear while working. They smelled worse too.

All of us at work knew him by face. Even though he never spoke a single word he came in every day with a blue faded Broncos coffee mug, for a cup of black coffee. This greatly annoyed the managers because he never had the 50 cents for the coffee. Looking back I think that he assumed that he bought a cup in the past, and it was free for life now.

The boss eventually posted a notice titled “We are not a non-profit organization!” informing everyone to stop giving him free coffee. So I started paying for his coffee every day. This made my manager very unhappy but there was little she could do because there was no rule against employees paying the customer’s bill, so long as the employee’s discount wasn’t used.

It was obvious to everyone else that he was not in full position of his faculties, and they ridiculed me for helping him. They called him things like “lazy bum,” “good for nothing” and my manager even used the phrase “an F-ing nuisance” several times.

Several months’ past by and in the middle of July, I took a week off to visit family. When I came back I noticed that he was no longer coming in for his everyday cup of Joe. When I asked my fellow workers if they knew what had happened, they excitedly told me that the manager had told him he was no longer welcome at the restaurant and they hadn’t seen him since.

So I asked some of the other elder morning coffee regulars if they knew him, or where he was. Jim, one of the oldest men in the group that came in every morning informed me that Ben was killed by a hit and run driver in front of our store 3 nights ago. He also told me that his real name was Samuel Duncan.

I informed the others what Jim had said and to my astonishment, no one seemed to care. A person had just been killed, and they just couldn’t be bothered. I felt sad knowing that a life had been extinguished, one that I saw every day, and I knew nothing about him. After my shift ended I went to the curb to wait for my ride, when I saw a blue broncos coffee mug lying in the ditch. After I retrieved it I noticed that had the same faded logo that Mr. Duncan’s had. I recognized it as his mug. Gripped with sorrow I knew I had to find out more about this man.

I found out that he was indeed a Vietnam veteran. In fact he was one of the most highly decorated soldiers to come out of that war. With 3 Purple Hearts and numerous other medals I realized that this man was a hero, a true patriot. He had suffered brain damage from shrapnel while he pulled two other wounded soldiers to safety. He had fractured his mind for our freedom, and no one cared. There was no news special, except to tell everyone that a homeless man was run down. This man who gave more than he had for our country wasn’t even worth a free cup of coffee to the rest of the world.

The lesson this man taught me is that appearances are not always as they seem. And that everyone has a story. We as a people need to start showing care and concern for the rest of humankind, and turn away from our preconceived ideas and thoughts. If we don’t, we will lose our humanity, our most precious gift.

© 2013 K.M. Young

Author's Note

This is my first draft attempt at this type of writing. Please be as critical as you feel you can be. Any good advise is really appreciated!

(i know there are some grammatical and probably spelling errors, i am pretty dyslexic so this continues to be a battle for me.)