Tangents

I look around impatiently waiting for my cousin's fiancée to pick me up. He called me five minutes ago telling me to wait for him in this bus stop.
It's five minutes later, when I see a car speeding through the street that I hear a sound between a sigh and a sob and I notice a man beside me with tears in his eyes as he takes one and then two steps to the street until I know what he's about to do and just grab him by the arm and push him to the pavement as the car rapidly pass by. I look back down and he's now full on crying.

"Shhh. It's ok now, you'll be ok. Breathe." I say soothingly.
He looks at me as if he just aknowledged my presence and then he starts to calm down.

"I'm sorry" he said. "I don't even know why I'd do it. I'm so sorry" And the waterfalls are back.

"It's ok now." I said in an attempt to calm him down. "Do you want to go for a walk? We can go anywhere you want."

******
And that's how I ended up sitting on a bench in an unknown park, with a stranger. At least my holidays are not that boring.
"I need to make a call, I'll be right back, ok?" He nods while I go a little further dialling Chris' number.
"Sinclar"
"Chris! It's me. I have a problem"
"El. Where are you? Are you ok?" He asks worriedly.
"Yeah. I'm fine. I'm just kind of lost. And not exactly alone" I try to find the words to say what happened without him panicking.
"Elizabeth Lorraine what the fuck did you do now?" Hmmm. I think it didn't work.
"I'm sorry. Someone tried to commit suicide and I couldn't just leave him there"
"Fuck. Is he ok?"
"Yes. I'm with him right now in a park"
"Alright. Send me the location. Use Googlemaps or whatever and I'll pick you up"
"Thank you. And could you please keep this between us? Dante would of kill me if he knew."
"If he asks I'm not sure I'll be able to lie. He reads me like an open book." He says.
"Shit. I'll be dead soon. He still sees me as his baby little cousin who needs protection 24/7"
"You can't really blame him, he kind of rescued you from the rest of your family. And after your sister..." his voice dimers until is just a whisper.
"Yeah." I sigh remembering Destiny's dead six months ago. "Anyway, I'll see you in a bit." I say trying to ignore the quiver in my voice.
"Sure."

I end the call and make my way back to the bench he's still sitting at.

"Hey" I say.

"Hi" he looks calm and collected. Nothing like the nervous wreck I met half an hour ago."Thank you. I don't know what I was thinking. I have a wife and kids to look after."

"Don't mention it. It's alright." I say politely " Look, my cousin's fiancée's a shrink. I can ask him to arrange you an appointment if you want" I look at him and he looks down at his hands "I'm not crazy."

"Probably not but you attempted suicide. You need help. Maybe you're having problems at home or work. Whatever it is, you should work it out "

When I say this he laughs bitterly and says "That's not it. I don't have those kind of problems. Actually, I don't have problems at all. I have a beautiful wife, two healthy kids, a good house, a nice job, more than enough money and I'm only 33. I should be grateful for what I have, but I just can't be.

"This morning I just woke up like every day to my wife making breakfast and my kids getting ready for school and I couldn't feel anything. It was as if I was just an spectator of my own life and it was just plain, no problems, no excitements no nothing. And then out of the blue I had a thought. What if I throw myself in front of a car? I mean I could die and everything'd be over or someone'll notice that I wasn't as ok as I seem. And then I found myself beside you on that bus stop"

"Now that's a strange way of breaking your routine" I say after a couple of minutes of silence.

"You could say that." he says after another homurless laugh."So I don't want to go to a counselor again, that phase of my life is already behind me"