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| September 25, 2003
, 12:06 AM |
The Old Man
I walked out of the door of walgreens. With a can of root beer on one hand and a 7 ounce Hersheys bar in the other, I sat down on what I like to call the smoke bench. This is a big bench outside walgreens where everybody sits down to smoke. There was an old man sitting there. Maybe 55-60. A full head of white hair and extremely distinguished looking.
"Too bad you don't have another one of those I would have liked to help you drink he said"
"Well you can help me eat my chocolate if you like" I said offering him the bar.
"Naah really I am just kidding" he said with a wave of the hand.
"Are you sure?" offering it to him again.
"No. I am just making conversation I like talking to everyone. It helps me forget the pain"
"The pain?"
"Yes I have cancer." A tired voice. "I wish I could stay off these damn cigarettes" he said, taking out a cigarette.
"Lung?" I asked.
"Yeah some of it there too." after which he explained in detail the therapy he was going through, which I don't remember much of.
"So you were born here?" he asked.
"No. Actually I got here only 5 months back"
"Your english is impeccable he said". My usual retort is "So is yours" but I bit my tongue before it came out.
We talked about the weather for sometime. Compared it with how it is back home in India.
"Are you from around here?" I asked him.
"No. From Indiana. I am going leaving for there this evening. You can see I have my long pants on" he chuckled. "I have a brother there. We planned an elaborate shindig so going there to have some fun. The doctors have given me a year, but I intend to stick around for at least another 5"
"I bet you will" I said smiling. I don't know if its love that I felt at that moment for the guy but it was incredibly close to it.
"I have 4 brothers and 2 sisters"
"That's a big family" I said smiling. "I have a sister myself. She is younger than me"
He chuckled again. "I know an Indian girl here who works at Winn Dixie. Her name is Indu. She is the sweetest little thing. Boy when she heard about my cancer......" he trailed off, looked at me again and said "She really is the sweetest thing"
I didn't have any words so I just smiled. We sat in silence for a few minutes. "I should be off now" I said getting up "I never asked your name. I am Rahul"
"I am Keith"
"It was really nice talking to you Kieth. You take care and have a good trip" I said.
"You take care too. Enjoy America" he said with a big grin on his face, as I was walking away.
"You too" I shouted back before I realised what I was saying. I will never forget the look in his eyes when I said it. It still hurts. I am such a careless bastard.
This is not exactly how it happened. I am just not a good enough writer to be able to explain it the way it did.
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