[Falstaff]

I have to say I think I can usually anticipate or expect everything. Last weekend my girldriends nine year old son was involved in a terrible fire that destroyed an old house. He and two other boys of the same age managed to find some matches and carelessly dropped them on dry tender in the old place. The two story house burned down in a matter of minutes as it was full of old newspapers and has been used to store belongings for the nieghbors for many years. The children were rounded up after the incident and chastized and verbally admonished and everyone spent the better part of a day sifting through the ashes looking for anything of value.
My girlfriend was frustrated and angry with all the children as she had grown up with their parents and knew the old house very well, the children kept their reasons to themselves having barely escaped with 1st and 2nd degree burns to their faces and hands, it could have been a terrible tragedy, and I wondered how the fire, having started on the second floor, didnt nearly kill all three of the children as they said they had jumped from a balcony window to escape.
Yesterday I found out that in fact a homeless man, who apparently had been using the place to sleep at night, and perform day labor during the day had also been injured. Law enforcement examined this fellow as the potentiol source of the matches and the combustable material, and were going to prosecute this old fellow, and toss him in the county jail on charges of vagrancy and loitering and other issues. He is a drifter and survived by drifting from town to town doing menial tasks, penniless and most probably a drunk, he appeared harmless to me. The old man's wounds were not very serious but he suffered cuts and burns and broken fingers in his hands, it appeared he was nearly killed as well.
This story would be another unfortunate set of circumstance and a short , except for the fact that one of the children came forward and told a remarkable story of being trapped in a stairwell between the first and second floor, of being overwhelmed by smoke and fire and hiding with his two accomplices. All three children would have met their fate that sunday afternoon, but the old drifter fought his way from the street into the burning structure to gather up all three boys and drag them to a second story window, as the house ws fully involved and throw each one of them into the juniper bushes below and to safety. Somehow the old man found his way onto the sizziling tiles of the asphalt shingles and slid off himself onto a tree nearby and crawled away.
The deputy in charge of the investigation was skeptical at first and sought proof of the story himself by bringing all three boys back with their parents for a followup interview.
All three boys broke into tears as they saw the old man, bandages wrapped around his arms and face, his hands dressed with bulky guaze, they all were sure this man had died in the flames and they had pledged to keep the incident a secret.
His name is not important, and his wounds were not very serious, and a grateful town collected what they could and gave this old man clothing, money and a bottle of whiskey.
The children got their souls back, they surely would have gone to their graves wondering what had happened to the old man.
I shoved a couple of twenty dollar bills into his hand yesterday and we drove him to Pueblo Colorado and put him on a bus to another destination somewhere in the mid-west. He shall remain anonymous and he will soon be forogotten perhaps, but you neve know where heros will come from, and how people will react to these situations. I just filed it away, and remind my girlfriends son that their wont always be someone to rescue you when you screw up.
Sometimes you just neve where angels will come from......

[pr0digal jenius]

that's quite the story!

Glad everyone's OK, and also to ehar that there are still good people out there (usually you hear of deviant/problematic homeless people, not heroic ones)

[Falstaff]

I have to admit, I turn my back on homeless people, and rarely do I extend the courtesy to everyone regardless of who they are....but I could never imagine why this man ran into a burning house, suffered painful wounds and would let the the county prosecute him for arson and many other things. Would I or could have done the same thing, could anyone in that tiny little town have done what this man did. I guess it just goes to show you how anyone regardless of their place in this world still has good in them, and the courage to do something...I often wonder if any of us that turn are backs on these folks have the courage to care sometimes and help them out....

[pr0digal jenius]

Very true, I often scoff at them.....mostly because there are so many of them who are dishonest drunks.

[Vikingod]

Most of them are not dishonest drunks, most of them are mentally ill drunks who have nowhere to go. Dishonest, sain, people find ways to scrape a dishonest existence, Most homeless people have no other means, and not the ability/minds to make those means. Many are rejects from mental hositals, they were not considered dangerous to themselves or others, and therefor, they cannot be treated (due mainly to budget constraints and federal legislation and funding cuts brought on during the Reagan Administration). It is a sad thing, homelessness.
That is a great story Jeff, glad you shared it with us. I hope everyone in your family is recovering, and that they learned something from the ordeal (i'm sure they did, i mean, how could they not! LOL). That is going to be one hell of a story to tell to their friends when they get older.

[GutterPunk]

well so i just wrote a long spew about how interesting the homeless are, but i dont wanna do it again as it was tiring. So thats good everyone is alright, i wish the hero best of luck in his future

[[hobo]eclipse]

Not all who wander are lost. -J.R.R Tolkien-

[Falstaff]

If I ever saw this guy again, I probably might be concerned about his welfare I suppose, what grabbed me is he never asked for recognition and was disappointed that he couldnt be thrown in jail, we had literally taken his meal ticket out of his mouth I suppose. I dont know, how things work in the spirit world but maybe he redeemed himself and when he dies his spirit can go on rather than being trapped between heaven and hell, I believe that drug users are perpetually trapped between heaven and hell somehow.

[dj_stick]

this just shows no matter the person's background, their heart and actions show their humanity

[nuG]

guys, it was really me in disguise. i do the homeless drunk heroic bum thing on weekends to make some extra cash

[Falstaff]

I just knew it, but if that was you, why didnt you have a triple chambered bong in your possesion?