"A GIFT OF HAPPINESS" CHAPTER 3: THE FIRST TO DIE

"A GIFT OF HAPPINESS" 

CHAPTER 3: THE FIRST TO DIE

By: Franklin Campusano

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    It was early in the morning; the sun wasn't done rising yet. Over at homeless street there was a large crowd of police officers and detectives. Crime scene tapes were surrounding the area and in the middle of it, a body lying on the side of the street. 

    His eyes were wide open with his pupils were completely dilated. His hands were pressing on the middle of his chest. His mouth was wide open. The dead man was a homeless man, Luis who was known to be the nicest among the homeless people. Luis was now dead. 

   

 I actually walked by the crime scene later that morning. By the time I passed by, the crime scene tapes were still there, as well as some officers. Some locals were also there observing for curiosity. Curiosity kicked in on me as well, so I approached one of the locals and asked: 

"What happened here?" 

"Someone died." 

"Someone died? Who?" 

"One of the homeless guys, a lot of them have been dying randomly recently."

"Ah, okay, thanks." 

    Upon finding out that the person who died was one of the homeless people my worries left, I did try to take a closer look, but the body was no longer there anymore. Because of this I continued to be on my way to work. 

    Once I arrived at my job, I noticed that the place was very quiet, something that's out of the ordinary usually. Joan was there sweeping and cleaning the tables. She is usually a quiet person but today in particular she was extra quiet. Franky and Phill are usually telling jokes but that day they were just working quietly preparing the pies. 

    I approached Franky discretely and asked him: 

"Why is everyone quiet today?" 

"The homeless guy that used to stand outside, Luis died." 

"Oh, so it was Luis. What happened?" 

"They found him dead earlier this morning, no one knows what happened to him." 

    Upon hearing this, I also started to feel weird. To think that the day before Luis was standing outside our restaurant as usual and that now he was gone forever and so suddenly. To think that I was never going to see him again standing outside our premises was a little spooky to me. 

    Even though he was not supposed to be standing outside our restaurant, we were used to his presence there and we even begun to like him a little. He was always smiling and making others smile. He was a happy fellow. 

    After putting all of my stuff in the locker room, I quietly went over to the cash register to wait for some customers but OfCourse, it was too early. I then turned my eyes toward Joan, I could then see that she looked very sad, a little sadder than what I would have expected for the death of a homeless man. 

    At the moment, I opted to not say or ask anything to her. Something told me that it was better for me to wait till lunch time, so I decided to give Joan her space. 

    Around that time, Chris came up from the basement with the dough. Upon seeing him I asked him if Joan and I could go to lunch together. Since Leslie was going to show up later Chris said that it was fine for both Joan and I to go to lunch together. 

    Something that I haven't mentioned so far is that Joe was known to be very generous to both his customers and workers. In our case this generosity translated to two free pizza slices of our liking for free as well as a free can of soda. So, after grabbing my two pepperoni slices and my soda can, I went towards the back. Joan followed shortly after grabbing her slices and soda as well. We ate together for a bit, but I then broke the silence and asked Joan: 

"Hey, what's going on? Why do you look so sad?" 

    Joan stood quietly for a few seconds, she then looked at me and told me:

"Didn't you find out? Luis died earlier this morning." 

"You're this sad about him?" 

"OfCourse I am..." Said Joan in a gentle but firm way, 

    I was a little confused by this, I understood that Luis was a nice person but as far as I knew he had no family nor friends. Joel took a deep breath and said: 

"I guess you don't know, don't you?"
 

"I guess not. What is it?" 

    Joan paused for a second and then said:

"Luis saved my life once not so long ago." 

    Upon hearing this from Joan I was extremely shocked and taken aback as well. 

"I... I didn't know that about Luis, nobody ever told me that." 

"No one talks about that, also that's not the best subject matter to talk to a new employee. The truth is, I felt deep gratitude for him, although I didn't always show it." 

    Joan began to sob a little. 

"I'm so sorry for questioning your feelings, Joan." 

Joan smiled a little. 

"Is okay Zoe." 

"What happened though? How did Luis save your life?" 

    Joan took another small pause after hearing this. I then added because of it:

"Is okay Joan, if you don't want to answer that question is okay." 

Joan tapped me in the shoulder and then said: 

"No is okay, I'll tell you, just give me a second and promise me you will never tell this to anyone outside of this store from this area." 

"Okay I won't spread this around, I promise." 

    Joan closed her eyes and smiled and then she began telling her story by saying:

"This took place about two years ago when the homeless people started moving in..." 

To be Continued...