The Man I never Saw

Before I tell this story, as rocky as my relationship has been with my mother, and other family members, I can guarantee this is the story that will make us stop, drop and roll. We will all band together and tell you this really happened, because it creeped the hell out of all of us. Due to my sister's mental condition, even she, can recall the events which took place that night.

New Year's Eve 2000, I lived in Camden New Jersey, and the Waterfront which divided New Jersey and Pennsylvania was the place to go for any amazing firework show, and Concert. Though there was a concert hall right next to it, people preferred the outdoors no matter the weather I assumed. Anyway Me, my mom, brother and sister went to see the fireworks that night. My dad had other plans. I could smell the divorced a'brewin' between my parents long before this day. But this day was so eerie, eye opening, and profound all at the same time. I mean a family of four is nothing special on a holiday which comes around every year, surrounded by hundreds of people with probably similar circumstances, right?

Well, after an hour of looking for a spot to sit, drinking hot chocolate and listening to the most awful stand up comedian possible, a tall lanky man with his bike approaches us and begins a conversation. His conversation began as if we were picking up where we had left off, however, we did not know this man or where he had come from. We were very rigid at him at first. Our social conditioning had to put up many walls of caution to strangers as we were living in the poorest and most violent city in the country. And this city worked very hard to keep it's title.

As he chatted with my mother, he pointed to group of men which were far and adjacent to our location. They all appeared to own a bike, which were parked next to them. They were group of about 5 or 6 men looking directly at us, pointing and laughing. Then we realized they were pointing and laughing at the mysterious man. He claimed he knew them and did not associate with them for obvious reasons. They were mean, miserable and looking to make trouble. The mysterious man told us all abut them, and how they make fun of him constantly yet they never get within 10 feet of him to confront their opinion.

He then continued to speak about his life profession as a lifeguard. He went into detail how he had learned how to swim in any weather condition, how he learned CPR and how passionate he was about "saving lives". He kept saying, "I save lives, that's what I do!" He peered at my mother and told her she should leave my father, he did not know anything about us and our situation, our relationship or our lifestyle. He simply ordered my mother to leave my father, he insisted that he was saving her life.

I did not mention before, he was extremely friendly and laid back. He smiled often, he laughed, and was exceptionally intelligent, though he appeared to be homeless. He did not smell so great, his clothes were shoddy, and his hands shook often too; maybe from the cold, but a little too much. He did not have on any gloves or thick winter coat, which we did not notice until later. My mother wanted us all to see, that when he was speaking he did not appear to blink at all. At all! This was an eerie distinction that he was slightly different from the crowd. He also never gave direct eye contact to any of us when speaking.

Anyway the fireworks show had taken place, and it was lovely, loud, colorful and evoked a lot of joy! There were a few couples getting married a few feet from us and others renewing their vows that night. The show was so bright and loud it was overdone. After the finale, many fireworks were still being set off. This made our walk back exciting. We moved slower than most people because we were in no rush to go back home, knowing the negativity waiting for us. We turned back quickly after gathering our belongings and noticed the man was gone.

We searched the crowd, looked in every direction, and there was no sign of him. The show had just ended, and he couldn't have walked far enough to be out of sight just yet. Like a blink of an eye, he and the crowd of miserable men were nowhere to be found either. They were a group of 5 or 6 and they were gone too. Not walking ahead of us, not biking, just gone. So, my mother asked the woman that had been sitting near us, if she had seen the man that we were speaking to and which direction he went off in. The woman replied, " I didn't see a man, I thought you were just talking to yourself. No I didn't see a man." We all looked at each other, and confirmed that we all had seen him, touched him, and heard him speak. So again we searched for the men with the bikes, and the bikes were left, but no men.

It felt like we were the butt of a cruel spiritual joke. We had all seen them, and we did not see them leave at all. My sister caught a large feather falling from the sky, out of nowhere, and there was no birds flying above us in the winter. As it fell at her feet, she looked at my mom and said, "that was a spirit, or perhaps, an Angel. We all saw him and talked to him, so we are not crazy." At least not all 4 of us could not all be crazy. He was there and then he was gone. No trace, no proof, no evidence, no witnesses.

Well, Happy New Year, I guess!

Though none of our lives were the same since that day, The Universe gave us a dark taste of spiritual reality, and confirm that we are never alone, we are capable of seeing and knowing more than what is put in front of us. I've been chasing that man for 20 years, hoping he makes another appearance somewhere. Because he was there, but he wasn't.