Warriors

On a beautiful Friday afternoon I am, once again, where the warriors are. I am sitting outside on a bench. I am observing people in the parking lot. I see an older blue car, Oldsmobile, pull up and stop in a handicap parking spot. A young man, sharply dressed, wearing brown lacks and a blue button up exits his car. He walks to the other side and opens the passenger door.  He the opens the trunk with his key and pulls out a wheel chair. He unfolds the wheel chair and secures the brakes.  The young closes the trunk and wheels the chair to the passenger side.  He helps and older men get out of the vehicle. He lends support by letting the older man pull himself up using the young mans arm as a sturdy prop.  He provides any assistant needed as the older man slowly gets out of the vehicle and sets firmly in the wheel chair.  He helps the old man carefully and unlocks the brakes and pushes the man in the wheel chair insides. The two men disappear inside.

I notice a man sitting in another bench ten feet away from me. I notice him and his appearance seems to be impatient. He scans the parking lot, looks almost disappointed, and then looks to his watch. He has a pocket watch in his left hand. He appears to be waiting for someone.  He is also nicely dressed. He is wearing black slacks and a polo shirt white in color. I notice off in the distance a younger man jogging towards us. He looks to be rushing in our direction.  The young man is wearing blue shorts and a yellow shirt. He looks clean cut and has an airborne tattoo on his right forearm. Maybe he is in the army himself or maybe he sports the tattoo in remembrance of a brave person he knows. The older man looks relieved and very impatient. He says to the younger man, that he will be if the do not hurt it up. The younger man replies saying they still have fifteen minutes to the appointment.  The old man says if I am not 15 minutes I am already late, the younger man laughs and says Dad you are not in the military anymore and there will be no issues. The dad laughs.  The son then pushed the dad into the double sliding doors and enters the building.

My friend, who I came to this location with, sees someone he knows. He gets up from the bench and walks up to some man and shakes his hand. My friend asks the man “how are you doing?” The two men shake hands and the other man replies that he is doping well. The man is a colored man who looks like he is my grandfathers’ age. He appears to be over the age of sixty, I am thinking he might be over seventy. The colored man says that he wishes this place would indeed give him gas money considering all the cash he spends getting to this location from his residence and back.  My friend reaches into his pocket, separates some papers he has in his hand, and grabs some money and reaches towards the colored man and says here please take this twenty dollars. The older colored man reluctantly takes the cash from my friend and with a very thankful look on his face says that he is much appreciative and says this will help him out more than my friend knows.  My friend tells the colored man that if all the people in the world took care of each other, this world would be a better place. The old man chuckles and slowly puts the cash in his pocket. They shake hands and then share a big hug.  The older man makes his way to an older Chevy truck. He gets in the truck and starts the vehicle. I look away from observing this man as my friend walks back towards me. I was very impressed with this act of kindness my friend showed. I tell my friend how generous you are and what a genuine nice act to share. My friend just smiled and said that the colored man was in one of his classes where the people of the class share support. They talk about their lives and how they have changed from coming back from being deployed. He says that veterans of America always take care of each other like an unspoken bond.

My friend and I watch the smoking area. We see a few people talking to each other, not smoking. We see another person on the phone talking and smoking. One gentleman walks up and says something. He must have asked for a cigarette.  Several men that are in that area reach in pockets and pull out the cigarette packs. Two of the men offer the man a smoke.  He lit the cigarette and starts smoking.  They are out of ears range so I can not really hear their exact words I can only see their actions.  They sit around talking to the man who accepted the smoke.  While he is smoking he looks around the parking area. With quickness, he tosses his smoke down on the ground and rushes to the loading and unloading area near the front of the building.  Some lady is driving a brand new SUV.  I am guessing it is his wife that is driving. I hear the lady, in a stern voice; tells the man “you should not be smoking”. The man replies that it was only one cigarette and he was not able to finish it. He also says that death is inevitable. He enters the car while she looks at him with no expression at all. He shuts the door and she carefully and slowly drives off.