True Story #9: Money does not make the man.

“blakmdjfkam jakldfjakl twenty akdjfakj kakjs klmasdfj he found me.”

Most of what Brad said made no sense, or was a combination of several languages; at least while he was talking to himself.

Jeremy had met Brad at the self-service laundry mat a two minute walk from his apartment.  Recently, due to one of the coldest winters in the past 10 years in France, Brad spent the better part of his afternoons in the laundry mat to keep warm because nobody was there to make him leave.  Brad lived on one of the two the park benches in the plaza just next to the metro stop where Jeremy entered each morning to go to work.

With 60 minutes until his clothes were washed, and a few spare coins in his pocket, Jeremy bought two coffees at the bistro next door and offered one of them to Brad.

“From what I understood of our conversation, Brad was in his 40s, half-Irish half-Russian, and living on the streets for at least 25 years.  He spoke four languages- English, French, Serbian, and Russian, had lived in at least 20 countries in Europe and the Middle-East, and had only been living in Paris for 9 weeks.  Apart from his abnormal decision to live on the street and his frequent tendency to talk to himself, Brad seemed like a reasonably intelligent man with an incredible story to tell.”

From that point on whenever Jeremy met Brad on the street, the two would stop and say hello.  One morning after a particularly cold night, as Jeremy entered the metro, he saw Brad sleeping on the ground next to his usual park bench and, having a few minutes to spare, decided to invite Brad for a coffee to warm him up.

“I called his name, and he didn’t respond.  The closer I got, the weirder I felt.  Finally I tapped him on his shoulder, and he still didn’t move.  He had died during the night – froze to death.  I was shocked.”

A little while later the police arrived and placed Brad’s body in a bag to be taken to the morgue.

“What will happen to him?” Jeremy asked the police officer.

“Well, since he has no identification there isn’t much we can do.  If a family member claims him, then he will be turned over to them.  If not, he will probably be cremated.”

“Life makes no sense.” Jeremy repeated over and over. “That man has been to more places than I can imagine, has experienced so many things in his lifetime than I may never hope to experience in mine,  and seemed so happy, and yet I’m the one with the decent job, the income, and all the possibilities, and I’m miserable.”

True Story.