Chapter 45
Short Straw: Thinking on My Way
There were many people in my life who crossed from stranger to friend so quickly that I barely noticed it happened.
Sometimes they became family just as fast.
Norman was one of those people.
Norman was an ex-Marine, although I never actually caught him with crayons.
He was also the assistant manager of the fast-food restaurant where I had my first job.
One night, a man came in the front door.
That man gave me the icky feeling.
I walked away from him quickly, directing him toward the front.
He pulled a gun on the cashier.
They gathered the money.
He tried to take the cashier.
Norman jumped over the counter and came between us girls and the gun.
Norman never told us exactly what happened.
We just knew five minutes later, the police showed up.
Two minutes later, Norman came in the back door carrying the gun and the money.
No one thought that coming between employees and a gun was Norman’s job.
But when Norman jumped that counter, he leaped from co-worker over friend and straight to family in our eyes.
The robber did not fully appreciate what that meant.
Looking back, I’m sure he understands now.
Family takes care of family, just because they are family.
Looking back, Norman wasn’t unique.
He was simply the first of a pattern I was starting to recognize.
My mom took a stranger, called him a friend and fed him like family, all in the same day.
The gate guards blurred together in memory.
Some were funny.
Some were serious.
One redhead earned the nickname Short Straw.
Together they became the character who appears in these stories. All of them looked out for me and watched over the bubble making, blown tire, clown of a teacher that tutored them in college algebra. We were family bound together by the Zone. We would never have called each other friends, but we looked out for one another anyway.
Medical personnel looked out for their community, protecting them like family. Caring for them.
Firemen risk their lives over and over, taking care of their community against a common enemy.
Sometimes, they just treat a single individual with unexpected respect.
They treated me like family, even though we just met through an accident.
A group of strangers at a bus stop, treated me as a star in a Greek play, as they acted like a chorus, comically shouting incomprehensible sentences in my direction, in a language they knew I couldn’t understand. Those men stopped, turned their back and offered me the respect they would show to their own family. We were never friends.
My students, Angel, Rudy, Juan, Marcus and Alec… they all reached out to help me navigate a country they knew could swallow me whole. They took up the role of big brother even though I was twenty years their senior.
There were people within my stories who could not comprehend how quickly a relationship can escalate from “we just met” to “I shall defend you with my life”, or “I will help you change your life”.
There were people who saw it happening over and over.
They just accepted that it could happen.
They didn’t have to understand it.
In one day, you can be strangers, friends and family.
But, for now, I pull myself out of my musing and realize I am almost at the gate.
Daniel's Den 