As I walked along this morning I noticed a nine or ten year old (I’m assuming) carrying his backpack on his way to school no doubt. He was on the other side of the street. He looked so happy. It was great to see and took me back a few decades. Suddenly, the boy stopped dead in his tracks… he took a step cautiously forward and then retreated. He carefully looked ahead to his right. Just a few houses ahead a woman with a cigarette dangling from her lips stood on a porch with a huge black dog on a leash at the bottom of the steps. The dog had eyed the kid and was straining on the leash. Now smoking and on the phone, the woman took no notice. The kid looked a bit frightened and confused as he stood on the other side of the six lane street. He looked straight ahead across the street and then back at the dog again. He looked as if he could not cross the street and was too afraid to go forward. What to do? What to do?
I waited for the traffic to dissipate and then made my way across the street. I asked the woman if she could hold her dog back while the kid passed. I might as well have asked her for a kidney. “What? Why?” I pointed to the kid and told her that the boy needed to pass and was a bit afraid of the dog. “Oh,” she said, as if it were the weirdest request ever asked of her. I beckoned to the boy and told him that it was safe to pass. As he passed I noticed that he was light complexion black with light grey eyes. His eyes seemed to dance as he smiled broadly and said, “thank you, sir. I hope you have a great day.” I told him to have a good day at school.
People, there are people in this world other than ourselves!
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