Street 237

Chapter 15: You're Young

We arrived at that fast food Chinese stand that Chase had taken me to once before.
"Hey Rick!"
A moment later, Rick leaned out of the stands window opening and looked, "Well hey there Chase! What's up my dude?"
"Nothing much, Hey—do you think you could hook my—"
"No can do man."

My eyebrows shot up and I felt a sunken feeling in my stomach.
"Huh? Why?"
"Man, we are barely making profit as is. We can't just go around handing out free food. If I knew you were just going to bring your friends along I wouldn't have gave you the free stuff either."

Chase furrowed his brows, "fine.." His voice was deeper than usual and more hostile. He turned, "follow me."
Me and Mr. Peterson followed Chase down the street a few blocks to an abandoned building. He crawled into through a shattered window and told us to wait outside.
We waited for several minutes before he actually came out.
He was holding something green in his hands as he hopped through the window onto the pavement.
"Here," he held out what looked like $10.
Mr. Peterson looked at it and shook his head, and pushed Chases hand back to him.
Chase looked at him as if he were crazy for turning it down.
"Sir, you need this. You can get yourself a decent meal. Maybe even two."
"You need that more than I do, son." He patted Chases shoulder and smiled, "You're young—you have a future to tend to. That money will help it if you allow it to. I—" he paused a moment to cough. It sounded horrible.
"—I'm just making it day to day. I've already lived my life." He gave Chases shoulder one last Good pat before he bid us farewell.
I watched him as he walked away, and Chase stood somewhat bewildered.
"He didn't take it." Chase finally spoke after minutes of silence.
I looked at him and sighed, " That's Mr. Peterson for you. He never receives, he only gives." I wished he would have accepted that money just that once. Maybe he could've gotten a good meal and some medicine for that cough.

"He's a good man, I must say." He put the money back into his pocket.
"I don't know what future he's talking about though," he shrugged and left his hands in his pockets.
I looked at him and perked an eyebrow.
"You're young, you still have a life ahead of you."
"Highly doubtful. I'd be lucky if I woke up tomorrow."
"'That May be true, but you have a better chance than he does."
Chase gave me the utmost questionable look.
"Are you saying his gonna die?"
I shook my head.
"No, I'm saying that he is old—you are young. He has seen better days. You're going to see better days."

That silenced Chase. He probably wondered how I could be positive yet somewhat dark at the same time. He probably didn't like that I was making his chances sound better then Mr. Peterson's. But I knew Mr. Peterson probably had some health issues. It just came with aging.
Chase and I are still young, we can fix what we're in and emerge from the twilight. I came to believe Mr. Peterson believes that he would never be able to get out of his situation. He was too old..

Too late.