Joe
Posted on May 28, 2007
A Short story....but....might tax your attention span!! hehe My Friend Joe I guess that Joe must have felt that he had the most unhappiest of lives, he may not have been good looking, as he certainly was not, but he still had great talents! No matter how bad you might be feeling, he had a way to immediately take you out of the doldrums, and have you laughing. Another talent I most admired, was a strange ability to see the unseen. If he heard someone complaining that they had lost something, he would go up to them and ask, "Did you look alongside the seat of the sofa..on the left hand side? somehow I feel like it may be there." or "Could you have left it in your other coat,..in the right hand pocket?" People would look at him as if to say, "Who the hell asked you???" and he would just drop his head and walk away, but yet they always found their things exactly where Joe had told them. One night had gone to a movie, followed by a restaurant, and while we were eating, we overheard the people in the next booth talking, a woman said to her friend, "I'm so afraid for Timmy, he don't seem to be getting better, and the Doctor said he had done everything he could!" Poor Joe had to butt in and said, "Ma am, if you will give him a quarter teaspoon of oil of geranium, he will come right out of it! but the only place here in town you can get it is at Wold's Pharmacy, and you don't need a prescription!" Now these women thought this guy was totally wacko, how can he expect to know what Timmy needs, when the Doctor couldn't help, and I could see they had rejected the suggestion altogether. When they got up to leave I went up to the lady and told her, "Joe is never wrong about these things! I'm sure geranium oil will not harm him in any way, and what have you got to lose, but a lot to gain...Please try it for god's sake!!" she looked at me steadily for some time, seeing my earnestness, and finally nodded...and replied, "I will talk to the Pharmacist, if he says it can't hurt him I will do as he said." Out in the car, I had to ask, "How do you know this geranium oil is going to help a kid you've never met?" Joe thought for a while and finally said, "I can't tell you..it popped into my mind, and I just knew it was right, and I also knew what the problem is, an infection in the arterial wall of the heart, now I can't tell them to get antibiotics! and this is the only other thing that will cure it..I don't know how this comes to me, but I know it's always true!" I asked, "Is the woman going to do it? his eyes went into search mode, his face lit up and he smiled, "Yes and her Timmy will be up and playing within two days!" I searched my pockets for the keys to the car, and couldn't find them, I said, "I must have dropped my car keys in the booth of the cafe, I'll be right back!", No! Joe replied, you dropped them into this Kleenex box between the seats." I searched and there they were! On the way home Joe said, "You're my only friend, everybody else rejects me, because I'm so damn ugly, even going through school, I only had one - kind of a friend, but when the others would tease me, he would join in, so he wasn't a really true friend, so I've been stuck alone just about all the time, would you mind turning down this next street to the right?" I did and drove about a block and a half, Joe pointing said, Stop right in front of this house! I stopped and he got out and ran in, I sat there about a half hour before Joe came running out, "you're going to have to move the car, an ambulance is coming!" "What happened Joe?" I asked, "Heart attack" he replied non chalantly," the old woman was in no position to be able to help him, she can hardly get around herself!" "So?" I queried, "what did you do?" Joe looked at me like I must be some kind of dummy, "he wasn't breathing! I got him breathing again, and had her call the ambulance!" I just nodded..no more need for questions, though I had quite a few, .I wouldn't understand anyway! About a half hour after the ambulance got there, Joe finally came back out to the car and said, "Let's go home! Isn't this the shits! he said, when I went in there, the old lady yelled at me saying, "get the hell out of here you ugly bastard or I'll call the cops." I yelled back at her, "Call an ambulance, your husband has had a heart attack and is dying!" she hadn't noticed him slumped down in the chair, and couldn't breathe, she took one look and called them, I pulled him onto the floor and did CPR and got his heart going, he was doing pretty good by the time then ambulance arrived, and I was able to skip out before she could try and thank me!" But Joe, I stammered, How did you know? and which house it was? "I've told you before! I don't know!! it just comes to me, please quit asking me this I cannot answer it!" I took Joe home and went home myself. A little more than a week later, Joe and I went to a ball game, he was almost in tears as he came to the car, and I asked, "What's the matter Joe?" "My landlady, said she don't want me sitting in the lobby where people can see me, I bother the other tenants!" God, I thought, how can people hurt a man so much, that does everything he can to help others, "Tell me" he asked, "How come your not ashamed to be seen with me?" "That's easy!!" I replied, "Because your my friend!" though I knew there were places I would rather not go if he was with me, he was extremely homely...yes even ugly. Over the next half dozen years, I almost got used to 'happenings' whenever in the presence of Joe, and though he could change my low moods, I could find little to help him when he was down, though God knows I've tried. Once in a while my jokes or little stories, would make him smile and lighten up. About three months ago, I picked him up to go to a musical that was in town, he was really in high spirits, a welcome relief! "You look like your really feeling chipper! I smiled at him, "Yeah! he grinned, but I can't tell you why until we're going home!!" I was happy that finally something good had happened to Joe, and let it go at that. The musical was great, and we both thoroughly enjoyed it, "A Great Ending!" Joe exclaimed. "Yeah," I replied, "they really had it together!" Joe laughed, "in more ways than one!" I wondered a bit but let it go, but then then when on the road I said, "OK Joe, level up with me, "Why you so chipper tonight?" "Pull over here and stop" he replied, Damn here we go again I thought!, I pulled over and stopped, "What is it Joe?" His lower lip started quivering, and it took a while before he could speak then said, "This was a great finish to my life, I'm going to die tonight, but I don't want you to feel bad for me, because where I'm going there will be no more sadness!" "Joe!" I practically screamed, Don't do something stupid" "No!" he shouted back, I'm not going to kill myself! I'm not that stupid! but you gotta understand my time is over here, and I really want to thank you for being my friend! It's only fair to let you know that I'm going home tonight!!" by now it was my lower lip quivering, " I don't want to lose you Joe, you've been a good friend!" Joe laughed, gave me a strong hug and said, "Be happy for me! this life of misery is over for me, I know your going to miss me, but I'll be in a position where I can help you far more than I can here! I'm going home!!" Sadly I asked, "Does it have to be Joe?" He nodded "to refuse this opportunity, my life would be far more miserable than it is now!, I am called to go home! Please don't feel bad for me, I'm so glad my time has come, please don't mar it with sadness!" I smiled through my tears, "Joe, I want what is best for you, and if this is the happiness you've been waiting for, far be it from me to try and hold you back, but it's still hard to lose a friend!" He gave me another hug, and said, "Your not losing me buddy! you will know when I'm around!" I dried my tears, and began the drive to his home, but about a block short, he said "Stop here! I want to walk the last block! we hugged each other and I watched him go until he got close to home, then headed home myself, I was far enough away I didn't hear the gunshots of the drive by shooting that ended the life of my friend, but I knew for certain that he knew it was coming, and was ready for it. After the funeral I drove to a spot overlooking the city, and spent several hours just setting there in a total state of numb, but maybe doing a little thinking, but in the end, I could only acquiesce it was over..Joe is gone, I really pray that he is as happy as the said he would be!
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