While waiting at a dentist’s office in El Monte my kids and I settled at some chairs and watched the Little Mermaid on the shared TV. They sat mesmerized by Ariel’s misadventures but my eyes were upon someone else.
A man!
He sat so still across the hall and his gaze was fixed upon a point I tried to identify. His skin had a shade of brown which had obviously been well baked under thousands of rays of sun over the years. His whisppy and thinning white hair was well manicured at both his balding head and pristine mustaches.
A simple but elegant cane rested between his legs and on occasion his hands pressed the handle and he assured himself it was still there waiting along side him.
He was thin but not frail. A stoic fixture in the room that commanded my respect without him saying one word. Maybe I saw the future in this gent? Could be I saw the past because he reminded me of my father?
In any case he brought me joy while at the dental office and how many of us can claim that?