On the cool, crisp Saturday afternoon, I did what any teenaged girl would do and went to Starbucks.
I had my laptop tucked under my arm and my skinny vanilla chai latte in hand when I glanced around the room only to see one open table in the corner of the little coffee shop, tucked away like a deep, dark secret.

Next to this table was another that was quietly occupied by an older man who sat with a small cup of coffee and blank face, with his back to the rest of the shop and his eyes fixed on the wall in front of him.

I sat down at the table beside this man and gave him a little smile and a hello, to which he replied with a blank stare.

I shrugged it off, and began my college research. But I couldn’t help but occasionally glance at the man, his face so worn with age. His blank stare turned to a worried scowl, and his legs began to fidget.

I studied the lines in his face and the veins that protruded from his hands that were clasped together so tightly you could see the whites of his knuckles and all I wanted to do was say “what’s wrong?” But that’s not socially acceptable.

His shaking legs kept time with the 3-count beat of a waltz 1-2-3 1-2-3 1-2-3 and I could see his anxiety grow.

I wondered what could be troubling this man so? Was his friend having a life-threatening surgery? Did he lose his dog? Could his daughter have run away from home? Could his son have tried to kill himself?

Soon enough, college became irrelevant and this man became the center of my focus. His uneasy eyes could write a novel, for they told a story so deep, and I wanted to read it.

But then, I heard a beep come from the pocket of the man. He reached -into his pocket frantically, looked at the old flip phone, and ran walked out of Starbucks like he was preparing to go to war.

Out the door and into the parking lot, the man walked ferociously. He had one thing on his mind and I can’t tell you what that thing was, but I know that it was important.

One minute.
One minute this elder man was the complete focus of my being, the next he was out of my life forever. Another body in the sea of people on this planet we call earth, another chapter in the book of life that I didn’t get to read.

Oh how I wish I was able to read it.