After my recovery meeting I started to make my way to the bus stop. It was an airy night. The sounds of the small town were noticeable but now alarming. I had my earphone in listening to TTPD by Taylor Swift on shuffle while a group of late teenagers, young adults, were stood not too far from me. One was seemingly talking beautifully about their boyfriend and the other two were listening chiming in every so often about something random.

I turned my head and saw a man stumbling up and down an alley way that was close to where the bust stop was. His footsteps were loud enough to make heads turn but still light enough that they didn’t cause concern. Watching his moves intently, his steps wandered towards where the group of friends and I were at. He had a little hop in his steps. He looked a little rough with his dingy looking pants and shirt but he had a slight smile. It wasn’t creepy which was the weird thing. It was a friendly smile but still I was cautious.

The man made his way past the group of friends and slowly walked past me. He walked a couple of feet past me and made a turn around a pole and as I watched him he started to walk towards me. I was sitting on the curb while the group of friends was standing watching the man diagonally from where I was sitting. He stopped and smiled. I did a slight smirk, said hi then looked straight ahead to not make any eye contact. I didn’t know what he was doing but I wasn’t scared. He didn’t show any signs of harm, but then again I’m the type of guy that likes to give everyone and every situation the benefit of the doubt.

He started walking towards me, with his seemingly friendly smile, and stopped to point at my head. I couldn’t tell if he was pointing at the fact that I was bald or what. I pulled away slightly to stare at him and his finger. He stood there smiling at me. But when I tell you it wasn’t a creepy smile I really mean it. If you’ve seen the scary movie SMILE it was not like that. Lol

I said hi again with a smile back and saw a little banded ring on his pointed finger. The ring looked cleaner than the rest of him. One of the people from the friend group walked towards me to help me up and kind of made sure there was space between me and the other man. The person stood by me while the man turned toward the road, looked at me, with a neutrally sad look. I looked at him again, smiled, said hi then took a step closer to the friend group. They watched like a hawk.

The guy took one last look at me and walked away. One of the people from the friend group asked if I was okay. I said yes, let out a nervous chuckle and said that was awkward. They agreed and right on time was when the bus came by.

It was the weirdest thing. I wasn’t put off by the guy but I was a little guarded. This is going to sound weird but part of me wanted to give him a hug. Or show some kind of compassion. I did smile at him and I said hi. I hope that was enough of an interaction for him that showed connection.

After I got on to the bus I couldn’t stop thinking about the situation. The stranger of friends that showed concern and support. The immediate feelings of who is this man and what is he doing? Maybe I was overthinking the situation but the only thing I kept thinking about was the ring on his finger. Maybe he did want a hug. Maybe he wanted some sort of human connection that resulted in more than a nasty look. The ring on his finger made me think about how he possibly belonged to someone, though it was on his pointer finger and I’m not sure if it did belong to him, I’m just saying that for a split second – while he pointed at me and smiled, the ring was on a living breathing human being.

He was someone’s person. He is someone’s person. I hope he is okay. I hope I never lose that feeling.