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I was hanging out in Starbucks when a man walked in. The first thing I noticed was that he was a double amputee. The second thin I noticed was that he had one of the biggest, broadest smile I had ever seen. I'm not sure if he knew practically everyone in the coffee shop or if he was just one of those guys that treated everyone that way, but he went from table to table greeting and laughing before he even got in line to get his coffee.
Contrast this with the attitude of just about everyone else on just about every morning before they have had their coffee fix and you get something truly remarkable.
I found myself wondering how he had lost his legs. My first thought was war. He was too young for World War II but too old for either of the Gulf Wars... that left Vietnam. This was all speculation of course but I realized that I was creating a character. But heres the thing, I didn't need a character for anything I was currently working on, but I found him interesting so I decided to go with it and save it for later.
I pulled out my laptop and typed the following:
He was still thin, painfully thin. But then he always had trouble keeping substantial weight on his bones. His skin was that rugged mahogany color that only Native Americans seemed able to achieve and that pale faces nowadays envied. His eyes were warm and engaging his smile was welcoming. A twisted tangle of dreads hung wildly from his head despite his receding hairline. The random gray hairs in his faint moustache were the only other clues of his advanced age. Though he walked with a cane and he still had a slight limp. It was not enough, however, that the casual observer would know that he was a double amputee. He had stepped on a land mine after being in Vietnam for only two weeks. That alone gave him every reason in the world to be bitter but surprisingly he was not.
He was still thin, painfully thin. But then he always had trouble keeping substantial weight on his bones. His skin was that rugged mahogany color that only Native Americans seemed able to achieve and that pale faces nowadays envied. His eyes were warm and engaging his smile was welcoming. A twisted tangle of dreads hung wildly from his head despite his receding hairline. The random gray hairs in his faint moustache were the only other clues of his advanced age. Though he walked with a cane and he still had a slight limp. It was not enough, however, that the casual observer would know that he was a double amputee. He had stepped on a land mine after being in Vietnam for only two weeks. That alone gave him every reason in the world to be bitter but surprisingly he was not.
He smiled broadly as he went from table to table and greeted complete strangers as if they were life long friends.
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