Misery

This evening, E. was sitting at the kitchen table, once again trying her skill playing 'PapiJump' on the i-Phone.

As she played, we could both hear a strange sound coming from outside, almost like a cow lowing in the distance, but with a peculiar, un-cowlike urgency.

"Don't tell me that there's some homeless guy standing in the DMV parking lot and crying," she groused as she played on. I went out back to see what was making the sound.

To my surprise, that was exactly what was happening. In the DMV parking lot behind the house stood what appeared to be a homeless man, bawling. Just bawling.

I approached him and asked: "What's wrong?" (maybe a bit breezily - it's hard to know how to respond to a stranger's grief - but for all I knew he might be injured). The man, who appeared to be in his 50's, abruptly stopped, pulled his knit cap tighter over his head, turned his back and started stumping away. He said: "Leave me alone, man!"

I looked down where the man had been standing. There was a shockingly-large wet patch, where the man's tears had sprinkled and smeared onto the pavement.

Driving to Davis a few minutes later, I saw the same man standing in the parking lot at the corner AM/PM convenience store.

I hope he's OK....