He didn't know my name and I didn't know his. All I knew was that he was dying. It all started last night. We first met each other at the Bar 47 downtown Chicago. It was the middle of July. Hot, musky, alcohol smelling fog filled the ally in which I first laid eyes on him. He was sitting against the wall; sweaty, muscular and was covered in scars. A real hulk of a man. And I was just a woman passing by like a leaf carried by the wind . I took a quick glance. He asked me what I was looking at, nothing I replied. A slight look of annoyance appeared. I asked him what he was doing for the rest of the night and if he wanted to join me. He stumbled up to his feet and we were off.
He took me to a diner more American than Uncle Sam himself. We sat and talked the whole night. We were complete strangers, but that did not matter. He told me about his two children back at home in Argentina and how he sends money to them whenever he gets his paycheck. I told him about my wonderful American life and how it has gotten me here: sitting at this table with him playing with the sugar. Dumping pounds of it into my coffee.
I told him about a story my mother used to tell me about a woman who followed the bright star. If you keep following it, it will take you to your dreams. So we did as the story went. We searched for the brightest star we could find that wasn't an airplane, then we followed it. We traveled down the street. Crossed seventeenth street then sixteenth, fifteenth, fourteenth thirteenth. We walked until we reached a dead end of an alley. All we found was each other. Two out of breath people. Train wrecks.
The extreme silence crushed any existence of awkwardness. He reached in to kiss me. There was a loud noise. A beautiful loud noise. Strong enough that war broke out in our ears. I tasted blood but I felt no wound. I opened my eyes and found the man I fell so quickly in love with collapsing to the ground where I found him. In the same foggy alley wreaking of alcohol. Where I was just a leaf floating by and him a sweaty man. The countless hours I spent with him, a stranger, felt like forever. And it had just ended.
I didn't know his name and his home was not here. He was just a man. His two baby's that he left behind will be wondering where the next check is.
