Howling winds

The winds on this winter night howled like the voice of satan himself.racing down streets and back alleys covering the tracks of any poor soul caught off guard becoming a victim of its relentless thrashings.

I pulled my jacket closer around my body using my woolen scarf to protect my face as I made the slow walk from work to my car that sat alone under a single street light covered with inches of snow that began earlier that afternoon. My co-workers left early heeding the advice of the news channel that issued a winter storm alert with heavy snow and blizzard conditions.

I had decided to work late not thinking about the chaos falling from the sky or the winds that howled its anger. Stepping out was a slap to my face and a shock to my body as nature punished me relentlessly as I made my way to that frozen pile of steel and the warmth soon to be. My remote didn’t work so I struggled to open it with the key but it snapped off in the lock leaving me to stand there in total disgust, and freezing a little more.

I muttered something as the lights in the parking area went out as did the building lights and every light as far as I could see. I was alone and locked out of my car and I was losing feeling in my hands and feet. My cell phone showed no service and the battery was all but dead. I had to make a plan and do it quickly. I walked back to the building and tried the door knowing it locked behind me when I left but, hoping by some chance it would be open. It was not.

Panic was knocking at the door as I headed out into the blizzard, not knowing where I would go, but wherever that may be, I had to get there and get there fast. I ended up in an alley where the winds were blocked and although the frigid cold was very much there, I felt a moment of relief. I knew if I didn’t find some warmth my time was limited before I froze to death. I heard a voice calling for me to come over, and as my eyes cleared and my vision returned, I saw an old man in the far corner of the alley telling me to sit next to him where he would share the pile of cardboard he was using to keep warm.

We sat in silence inches apart keeping the cardboard around us as we listened to the storm and its anger. Morning came and the winds had passed . The familiar noises of the city stirred me back to reality as I unwrapped myself from the cardboard wondering where the old man had gone? I had just finished that thought when he appeared in front of me holding two cups of steaming hot coffee he had gotten at the mission a few steps from the alley. We drank the coffee in silence, then he nodded to me and slowly walked away into his world, just one man helping another in need. My outlook on life changed that frigid winters night and it changed for the better.

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