Last night I was walking home from work at around 1:00 AM when I noticed an old man kneeling on the corner outside my apartment building. My corner is a curious one. Across from the building there is a school and huge basketball court. On the other side of the street is a bodega and a scary, old man bar called McCarthy's. The place has always frightened me.
As I crossed the street I noticed that the old guy kneeling on the sidewalk was actually having a hard time standing up and walking. Naturally, I first thought he was one of the drunks from McCarthy's. Then I noticed that he really couldn't get up. I decided to see what was up.
I asked him if he was OK, and instead of nodding Yes or No, he made some strange hand gesture, as if he wanted money. He also had very few teeth, no laces in his shoes and could barely speak. He could only make strange babbling noises. Weirder still, he seemed to be smiling at me. He seemed happy, but I asked him again if he wanted help, (Cabrini Hospital was half a block away) but all he did was babble and wave his hands around.
As I opened the door to my building, I saw the guy try to get up and walk again, only to see his fall to his knees. At that rate, it would have taken him all night to get to the end of the block. I wondered how he got there. It almost seemed as if someone had dumped him there, or perhaps he had been discharged from Bellevue, eight blocks away.
I went into my apartment and started to feel bad that I didn't at least go to the police precent around the corner or even the Academy, which is also across the street, to get the guy some help. This morning though, he wasn't there anymore.
