Yesterday I was in the far back yard, watering shrubs. A young man came stumbling down the alley. He said a mumbled hello to me, and then yelled something at me I didn't catch. Not odd in this neighborhood. "Another drunk in the alley," I thought. He didn't look like a vagrant. I figured he was a student still celebrating the New Year.
A couple minutes later he stumbled back and leaned up against our fence. His speech was hard to understand. I caught something about he shouldn't take it out on me, and something like, "...my cousin beat me down and back..." He hadn't been stumbling, he was limping. When he talked, it looked like there was blood on his teeth, and his mouth appeared swollen.
He leaned there for several minutes and kept apologizing. I kept forgiving him. I didn't ask if he wanted a ride to an emergency room, or if he wanted me to call the police. I kept watering the yard. He limped off.
3 comments:
Well, I don't really know what to say but felt I should comment. The story here and the way you told it was very evocative.
crossposted from Movin' Meat comments
Your experience would have left me very disquieted. It's really awkward -- you have no responsibility to help this guy and he doesn't appear to be asking for help, but there's obviously something wrong with him. So you feel like maybe you should do something, but (if you are like me) you are hesitant to engage this fellow, because you know it's going to be a huge hassle and probably very unpleasant. And then the opportunity passes, and you are left to wonder whether you should have done something. And of course, there's something viscerally upsetting in seeing someone with their face smashed up staggering down the street.
So yeah, I can deal with that sort of thing in a controlled clinical setting, but in your case I probably would have done the same thing and probably would have felt similarly about it afterwards
lty
That is really beautifully written! I'm really impressed with how your portrayed the moment- very evocative and draws you into reflecting on and thinking about how you would act in such situations.
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