03/16/2023
His Only Friend
I was out on the east side the other night, my old stomping ground, looking for a crook. There wasn’t much open that time of night, so I drove thru Shipley’s and grabbed a donut and a cold bottle of milk. The donut was cold too. And stale. When I asked, they said they had no way to heat it up, so I was stuck with it. I drove off and tried to take a bite and realized just how nasty it really was, so I drove over by a dumpster and threw it away.
It put me in a grouchy mood pretty quick.
Then I noticed what appeared to be a body lying on the sidewalk. And me being me, I had to check it out.
I walked over and saw an old man lying on the sidewalk, covered with some kind of makeshift blanket. As I walked closer, he stirred. I asked him from a distance if he was okay, and he lifted his head, looked at me, and said, “Yes, I’m fine.”
“Okay, I was just checking on you.” And he thanked me for checking.
Then I thought about the bottle of milk I had in the truck and figured he probably needed it more than me, so I walked back to the truck and brought the milk back to the old man. When I gave it to him, he started to cry.
I asked him again if he was okay, and he said yes. But just then, I saw the blanket move, and a small puppy poked his head out from underneath the blanket. Through his tears, the old man explained that he had eaten earlier in the day but didn’t have much to share with his puppy and had asked the puppy to forgive him. He was crying because now he had a bottle of milk for his little friend.
I talked to him for a few minutes, though I couldn’t find out much other than he was originally from Pasadena. He wouldn’t take his attention off that puppy, blissfully lapping up milk from his hand.
And he smiled a toothless grin because seeing his only friend happy…made him happy.
As I drove away, I thought about how petty it seemed now to get mad over a stale donut. Everyone has something to be thankful for.
Even if it’s just a cold bottle of milk for your only friend.