We all have stories. SagaByte is here for you to share yours. Create an account. Submit your stories using the submit button up top. Vote on stories by creating an account.
I have been living away from home for 15 years, since I went to college. I’d go home occasionally for weekends and holidays. Over the years I began to see changes in the city I grew up in. There were more buildings, more cars, more pollution, more people. It was not as cold as it used to be, and the small establishments I used to frequent as a child slowly faded into the woodwork as bigger merchants came into the city.
One thing never changed though. Or one person. A blind beggar always sat at the sidewalk of the main thoroughfare. He always stayed on the same spot, come rain or come shine. He’d be there, barefoot, staring up at the sun with one hand held out and the other holding on to a walking stick.
There aren’t many beggars along this street. The police always manage to send them on their way. For some reason, however, this guy was never sent away. He’s stayed at the same spot for as long as I can remember. I’ve often found myself wondering why he was never sent away, or why no other beggar’s taken his spot.
I’ve seen him all my life, and I’ve seen his hair and whiskers change from black to gray, his skin turn darker and grow more wrinkled, his hands and feet begin to look more calloused, and his eyes seem to shut tighter against the elements. Every time I came home, he would be there, and he would always be smiling. That always made my day, really. The fact that he was always smiling, even if it looked like he was lugging around all his worldly belongings and that he needed to beg for his next meal, made me smile too.
Recently I decided to come home and settle down here. I don’t usually go out so it was only yesterday that I saw him again, sitting at a different spot near his old spot. He looked older than I remembered, but he still looked the same, wearing that same smile I knew quite well. I wondered why he was displaced, though, and I found out why after walking a few meters. Another blind man was sitting on his spot!
I felt a bit disoriented at the change of events but I ended up laughing after a while. I had blurted out the first thing that came to mind – “boy, if those two SAW each other, there’d be trouble.” Imagine that.
Comments
|Comments|Who Voted|Related Links|