In an alley next to a trash can, that’s where he lived for as long as he remembered. Covered with filth, holding a bottle of cheap wine, his nails were as long as they could grow. His hair and beard covered almost all of his disfigured face. No one knew where this guy came from, why did he look like that, or even where he gets his wine, but no one bothered to ask. He blabbered stories about the people passing by; blaming the world for all what happened to him. But the poor man never got an audience. “He’s a mad man, a fool who doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” that’s how everyone described him.
As the days passed by, he became restless; none would listen to his stories, he became disappointed at the human race and how shallow it has become. “Fools I say, you’re all fools for not listening to a wise old man’s stories,” he repeated in his sleep after finishing his bottle of wine.
One night, as he was about to dose off from all the drinking, he heard a weird noise coming from afar, it was an old stray dog who was beaten-up and left for its death. The man, moving as quickly as a bum could move, carried the dog and brought him closer to what he calls his home. He had nothing to offer for the poor animal but an old loaf of bread which he found earlier that morning in the trash and was keeping it for next morning’s breakfast. He wet the loaf of bread with some of his wine and offered it to the old dog that looked at it and ate it like he had never eaten before.
“There there my old pal,” he said to the old dog in a half drunk half asleep voice, “I know the world has been cruel to you, I can tell from the way you look; you’ve been through hell just as much as I did. But no worry, I’ll take care of you, I know you would if I were in your shoes. After all you’re a man’s best friend. I need to find you a suitable name if we’re going to live together though. I know; I’ll call you Chance, for you are my only chance for having a true friend who won’t vaguely judge me. My name is Dave by the way, I think, or at least that’s the last thing I recall someone calling me by. Drinking this stuff has made my memories go flying by, but I believe only the memories that are worth while are the ones whom you should always remember anyway, so cheers to that!”
The man took a big sip of wine as the dog looked at him and barked. “Yeah yeah, I know I’m lying,” the man continued in his drunken voice. “I know that all my worth while memories are gone from my head, that all I can remember is the cruelty of the world, how a man would sell his brother for his own benefits, how behind every great man’s fall is a woman. It’s not my fault; there are divine powers that are keeping me from remembering, they want me to suffer, so I can be an example for the rest of the human race. I am the divine message of the Lord. What? What is the message you ask? Never take things for granted, be happy and thankful for what you get, who knows maybe it’ll slip away from your hands, never to come back again.” The man then stumbled up and continued. “I know you think I’m crazy but DON’T JUDGE ME!“ he shouted at the dog, and then he kneeled down and whispered, “you haven’t gone through what I have, you haven’t seen what I saw. What? You want to hear my story?!?! All right, if you think you are worthy enough, I’ll tell it to you, Sir Chance the brave.”
“I wasn’t always like this,” the man continued, “I once had parents who really cared about me, also a younger sister; she’d always sit next to me when I was feeling down, try to help me go back up on my feet. Sadly they all died in an accident when I was 5. Serves them right for ditching me and going to the park! I was left alone in this world with no one but my uncle George to depend on. Now this guy was something; every family had this one troublemaker. The kind of guy who would always grow up to be pretty much nothing but knows his way through life. Sadly, he doesn’t always end up getting what he wants and that was my uncle George. He’d always try to give me advice, unfortunately though, the only thing I picked up from him was the excessive amount of drinking and whining. And ever since my parents died, uncle George’s drinking problem became worse, as he inherited the only thing my old pops had; Old Pop’s Tavern.”
The man takes a pause looking at the dog that had just finished eating his little supper and seemed to be falling asleep with his head on the guy’s leg. Dave then continued, “You know my childhood wasn’t that great either now that I remember it. Then again all I can remember is the cruelty of those little bastard children that were around me. You see my uncle enrolled me in a fancy school, where they try to teach you manners before education. You know, one of those schools that try to strip you out of your personality and try to turn you into this mindless creature that only obeys orders even if he does not fully understand them. I mean you didn’t need to understand them as long as you got the idea of a good beating if you don’t follow.
SPOILED BASTARDS! THEY NEVER GOT THE FULL MEANING OF LIFE! This school was too classy for my idea of life at the time; I knew there was something more behind life than just blindly obeying what they told me. Yeah you’re right Chance, I guess that’s why I used to sneak out everyday and just spend my time in the streets with REAL, not spoiled, down to earth kids.
Do you have children Chance? Well let me give you a piece of advice if you do; if you want your kid to be well raised with good manners and no brains, let him go to school. But if you want your kid to be smart and know his way through life, let him live his childhood on the streets, believe me there’s a lot to learn out there and you’re not going to learn it in a fancy ‘all knowing’ school. Weird noises are coming out of you my dear friend, hope you’re feeling well there, didn’t mean to offend you Chance old boy.
Anyway, as I was saying, I spent most of my time as a kid in the streets of this poisoned city. I saw corruption happening right there in front of me, and no matter how much you want to get yourself involved, there’s no stopping it.” Dave then took a big sigh as he continued his little story with a tear going down his face, “People just never learn Chance, they never do man… You know something, I was wrong when I told you keep your kids in the streets. I mean all I learned from there is how to mess with your friends just so you can get an extra hit of your favorite drug. How to gather up just enough money for you to get something that’ll erase your existence, maybe a bottle of soda and a pack of cigs if your lucky or very good at it. One day I even saw two people fighting, I mean beating each other to death you know why my old pal? Just for an extra hit. Anyway I don’t want to bore you with my drug stories, I only wanted to give you some advice.
Boy those days were dark ages, but you know something, I learned from them than what they used to tell me in school, street smarts is something valuable to have, especially, if you were about to go through what happened to me.”
As Dave stops to take his last sip from the bottle he was holding he spots a cop car with the corner of his eyes. He then cramps himself behind the trash can so that he would not be seen. “Excuse my manners Chance, but if you’re wanted for the crimes I’ve done you’d do the same,” he then whispered to the dog.
Dave then started trembling and shaking as he remembered his dark and painful history with authorities and was about to throw his cover by stumbling gracefully on the ground. As the cop car stopped at the end of the alley with thoughts of them seeing a refugee hiding next to the trashcan; cause for them anyone who’s hiding is a refugee, they were thrown off by a car accident that happened just at the beginning of the street. It was a mess, a truck carrying chicken smashed head to head with another truck filled with gas. There were on fire headless chicken running everywhere, shooting blood from there necks.
The cop car quickly rushed to help clean the mess and put the running fires out as Dave, slowly and as gracefully as he was going to throw his cover, got up to check out what happened “HA! Sweet sweet irony, a chicken saved by his likes,” said Dave. “Chance old boy, you’re my lucky charm, if it weren’t for you, I would’ve been long gone by now. And for that reason, I’ll enlighten you with one of my sad but favorite stories.”
The man then took a deep breath as he sat back down and took the dog back in between his arms. “Have I told you the story about a man,” he then continued with a quieter voice, “a man who used to get so scared, that he couldn’t feel it anymore? I swear to you buddy I just couldn’t handle it anymore I guess, so he stopped feeling it, the chills the heartbeats, all of it. You know he wasn’t always like that; it’s just that if you’re taking the drugs, you’ve got to deal with its consequences.”
Dave then took a short breath, and then started mumbling with his mouth a bunch of words as if he’s blaming himself for something. “YOU DON’T HAVE TO JUDGE ME!” He then screamed at the top of his voice. “I’M NO JUNKY YOU KNOW, JUST CAUSE IT DOESN’T FEEL THE SAME TO YOU DOESN’T MEAN YOU CAN JUDGE ME FOR IT.” The dog started backing off a bit as he feared Dave’s loud and wounded voice.
“Chance my pal, I didn’t mean to scare you like that,” Dave then continued with a kinder, but still wounded voice. “You just don’t understand. The more you live through this life, the more you realise there’s not that much to it. It’s the people around you that really affect who you are. And if you’re stuck with a bunch of people that pretty much judge you all the time, pressure you, abuse you, and then finally just ignore you, trust me you’re going to need a certain drug to go through your day.
Whether it’s a cup of coffee or tea, whether it’s a cigarette or a joint, whether its going to the bar at the end of the night, or just to an alley to shoot some heroin in your veins, even if you take prescribed pills, at the end of the day they’re all drugs of some sort, so no one is to judge another for their addiction. It’s all the same, it’s just a matter of names Chance my buddy. Besides shouldn’t we be focusing more on why we need these drugs to go through our day? I’m sure if the city wasn’t so corrupt, and everyone wasn’t weighing everyone else down we wouldn’t have needed all these drugs anyway. I guess I just don’t know, oh I guess I just don’t know.”
As Dave continued his story, he looked at Chance and realised that he was fast asleep. He looked at him with a big look of disappointment and started petting him again as he continued drifting in his own world. “Even the dog got bored from my stories and went to sleep. It’s either that or he really was tired; I mean it IS 5 in the morning. I’m not sure anymore, I used to be able to tell the difference between a pal and a foe. Now doubt is all over me, I can feel it creeping up from my heart to my brain paralyzing it and affecting all my thoughts. Why can’t I even form a basic and logical reason for the dog sleeping?
That’s it! It must be it; I’ve lost my mind. My ex-wife must’ve taken it with the rest of my stuff. DAMN BITCH, YOU WEREN’T HAPPY WITH THE KIDS, THE HOUSE AND THE MONEY; YOU EVEN WENT THAT FAR AND STOLE MY MIND. But it’s my fault; I’M THE ONE WHO LET YOU INSIDE MY HEART AND MIND. “
Dave then started calming down as he gathered his thoughts then he continued on with his speech but with a smile on his face. “When they need attention or they feel down emotionally, they turn into this beautiful creature that attracts all eyes around it. But it’s when they flip to the other side is when every man is running to save his own life. It only takes a couple of seconds for the chain reaction to begin. Then there is this whole trial separation, or the: I’m sorry I can’t do this anymore, just tell the guy you don’t like him anymore and save both of you the trouble, trust me he’ll walk away and you’ll never hear from him again. BUT NOOOOO, THEY WANT TO STAY FRIENDS, in case they feel that emotional gap again you’ll be there.
Sometimes you reach awkward moments land, where you don’t know whether they hate you or not. They want to tell you their problems but can’t listen to your stories. It’s like they want to talk on the phone with a mute. If you ask me they’re all crazy, and having them in your life is like having to watch your favourite movie category over and over like for example shoot’em ups. Sure you’ll be happy and giddy. But by the third year of you hearing the same sentences again and again, not only do you start knowing and realising what’s going to happen next, you also get bored; you start losing your mind by trying to over think the situation.
And finally you lose your dignity and common sense as you try to become part of the movie you’ve been watching and making a fool out of yourself by trying to have full conversations with characters that could never, and won’t ever hear you.”
At the time Dave noticed that no matter how loud he speaks, the dog doesn’t really budge much. It had seemed that the dog had fallen into an everlasting sleep. The man then carried on his stories with an even lower voice than before. It had seemed that he even lost the will to continue with his stories.
“Man… You’re just like the rest of them. Even a man’s best friend can’t hear all of his stories at once and not get bored. I guess I’ll just pass out next to you till tomorrow. Maybe then you won’t mind listening to rest of my tale.”
Around seven in the morning, a regular man was going to his old regular job. He works in an office just like most of the people walking around him trying to get to their destinations. As he passed by Old Pop’s Tavern, he ran into an unbelievable stench that would change the rest of his life.
There were cop cars all over the place, and it seemed like everyone was gathered around something in the alley next to the tavern. As our regular man moved closer to the crowd, he stopped to ask an officer about what’s going on. “We were asked to find out the source behind this overwhelming stench when we find the dead bodies of a bum and his dog,” said the officer to the man. “It is estimated that the bum had died about two weeks ago around the same time. As for the dog it seems that he had passed away about two hours before. It seems that no one had realized this because no one even knew he existed.”
The man was shocked, how can someone be dead and nobody knows about it but two weeks after. “I have seen my future,” the man said to himself. “This is the end of the road I’m taking… No, I don’t want to end up like this man; forgotten and left to rot. I don’t want to end up like him. But what can I do to avoid this, what happened to this poor man? No, I will not end up like this; I will spend every last minute of my life guaranteeing this, and that is my final promise to this ugly world.