THE SMILE

The sirens of the ambulance blared as it whizzed past the traffic. I was just glad that unlike the popular belief, the white vehicle with a big red cross made it in time. In fact, it broke the pizza delivery’s record. As I sat in the cramped up space looking down on the old man strapped onto the stretcher, I couldn’t help but recall the few moments when I interacted with him.

“Excuse me Sir? Will you spare a coin?”

With ragged clothes and only a blanket on his old shoulders, the old man looked up at me and asked. I saw him daily while I closed my shop. Usually he stayed in the alley next to my shop and never disturbed me as I walked to my home. So I was curious.

“Why?”

I shivered as I asked him the question. The mid December chill was really getting to me. Even though I knew sparing a coin would not break my financial balance, I didn’t feel like parting with my hard earned coin without at least knowing where it was going to be used.

“I’m a coin short and this pup needs some food kind sir.”

He said giving me a glimpse of a very frail pup he was hiding inside his blanket. He covered it up quick and continued.

“I know it’s dying Sir but I would love to give it a last meal before he succumbs to the cold.”

I didn’t understand why this beggar would want to feed a stray pup that he knew would die anyway. My rational mind pondered over it again and again. Even as I tossed the coin in front of the old man and walked on, I couldn’t shake the thought out.

The next day, as I walked out, I inquired the old man about the dog.

“It’s dead Sir.”

He said. There was a strangeness in the tone of his voice. It was sad and happy at the same time. It was the most intriguing moment of my life. I realized that I was very curious about the life of this old man.

Over the next couple of weeks, I would stop every day and talk to that old man. I made a deal with him. In exchange for his story, I would provide him with a coin. And so every day, the old man told me a little about himself.

He used to be a farmer and on his small farm, he used to live happily with his family. A family of three – Him, his wife and his only daughter. He would work hard to keep his family well fed and the family lived happily, satisfied with what little they had. One day as he was driving to the market, his daughter and wife with him, a drunk truck driver swerved into him. The wife died immediately and the daughter was taken to intensive care. He survived without a scratch.

“There hasn’t been a day that I haven’t cursed fate.”

His eyes welling up with tears as he uttered those words. I could feel the corners of my own dampening at the same time. He had to sell his farm and everything else he had in order to pay for his daughter’s treatment, though it turned out to be futile.

“Sometimes life has other plans for you.”

He said as soon as he finished telling me about his daughter’s demise. That day I couldn’t sleep the whole night. Though a strong man, I couldn’t help the tears from flowing through my eyes. I started to visit the old man every day. I still gave him a coin but we no longer talked of the past. Instead we talked of the present.

“The times have changed,” he said sighing. “Modern medicine is a blessing wouldn’t you say?”

He looked up at me as he asked with the brightest smile I’ve ever seen.

As the doctors rushed him to the intensive care unit, I could see the flashes of the old man falling to his side right after he asked me that question. And then, as if it happened all over again, I could remember the ride in the ambulance.

“Don’t worry. I’m going to meet my family.”

The old man said smiling as he held my hands in his. As I sat there holding his hands he muttered one last word.

“You’re Welcome.”

I read it on his lips and that’s when I understood. He wasn’t helping the pup. He was helping himself. For those few moments he spent with the pup, he felt needed, felt he existed. And I realized, that for a brief but certain moment of my life, I was given the same luxury.

As the doors of the intensive care unit closed and shut me out, I whispered back to the old man who I knew was on his way to meet his family.

“Thank You.”