Arthur

A Story by Mel3358

A little girl spends a day with her best friend, a homeless man named Arthur.

I have a best friend named Arthur. He’s not what you would expect from an Arthur. When you think of Arthur, you think of big glasses, a PhD in math, and a brain too big for his head. But this Arthur? Well, he’s got a scraggly beard, plastic bags full of nothin’, and wisdom too big for his years.

When Mum and Pop are too busy fightin’ to notice me, I go see Arthur. I always know where he is. The bench in the park next to the big maple tree that turns red in the fall. I reckon he lives on that bench, cause he’s always there.

Arthur gets me. We don’t talk when we’re together. The only things that talk are the trees whispering to each other, gossiping about the birds. Arthur likes to listen to the trees. He says they tell him everything. And I believe him, cause Arthur’s wiser than a redwood tree. He also says he lets the future lead itself. I have no idea what that means, cause I’ve tried leading myself, and I ended up runnin’ in circles.

Today my Mum and Pop are yellin’ at each other like the trees in a storm. Their screams make my heart hurt so bad that getting out of the house is like an Olympic race. Arthur’s there. He always is. We stare at the future for a while. Then he talks. I love his voice, it’s so low and raspy, barely audible to any human ear that exist on Earth. I don’t know if he’s talkin’ to me or the trees, but I listen anyways. He says, the Earth is spinnin’, but we don’t barely notice nothin’. The trees start yellin’ when he says that. They sway back and forth at each other, fightin’ over somethin’, whatever trees wanna fight over. It’s almost as bad as Mum and Pop. The sky starts cryin’ right about then. I swear, Arthur must be a god or somethin’ cause he can say stuff and the sky starts cryin’ and the trees are fightin’ and all of a sudden, the sky shoots at the trees with a big bolt of pure power, cause all their anger is messin’ up the sky’s sadness. But Arthur doesn’t move an inch as all the sky’s tears pour down on his plastic bags, so I reckon it’s safe. I’m scared but I don’t wanna go back to where Mum and Pop are screamin’ at each other, so I fold up my legs and lean against Arthur, hopin’ his godly powers will make me feel brave. He puts a smoky smellin’ arm around me, and suddenly the tears and the fightin’ and the bolts don’t matter no more. We sit in the sky’s tears till our clothes are like swamps. Then Arthur sneezes, and I swear, his godly powers made the whole world stop bein’ sad and angry. We sit in the sun rays streamin’ through the peaceful trees and our swamp clothes become deserty again. And when the sun starts to set, and Arthur tells me I best be on my way, I walk home happy, cause boy it feels good to have a god watchin’ over you.