Humanitarian

Humanitarian

Noel Laflin

8-22-18

Many years ago Tom and I were walking about Costa Mesa late one night. When we couldn't sleep, midnight strolls were often in order. Tom had grown up in that city and knew his way around pointing out his boyhood home, schools, parks, an alley where once he'd been cornered by high school bullies, but ultimately rescued by his best friend. There were always stories from his past connected to where we wandered.

Along the way home he saw a perfectly fine prickly pear cactus discarded atop someone’s trash can.

“This guy needs rescuing,” he said, grabbing some newspaper from the trashcan and carefully wrapping it.

I did not object, as it would have been pointless to do so. Besides, we had a patio garden filled with rescued plants. They all flourished under his care.

A cop spotted us a short time later and pulled over, shining his light on both us and the strange bundle.

“Whatcha ya got there, son?” he asked Tom, expecting to find contraband of some sort no doubt.

“It’s a cactus – I’m rescuing it,” replied Tom, unwrapping the top layer of newsprint to prove his claim. I thought of his best friend who had once rescued him in an alley not far from where we stood, but kept that to myself.

The cop, taking a closer look shook his head and said rather sarcastically, “Well, aren’t you the humanitarian!”

“Yeah, I guess so,” replied Tom.

Still shaking his head, the cop seemed satisfied, nonetheless, told us to have a good night and went on his way to find some really bad guys.

A year later Tom slipped from a short ladder and took a plunge, head first, into that very cactus, which had lived and grown under his care.

Unbroken, he picked himself off the patio floor and went into the house. He found a mirror, rubbing alcohol, cotton swabs, and tweezers and went to work repairing his face.

When I got home that night I was met by a lad who looked as if he’d just developed the worse case of chicken pox and measles combined.

Before I could even ask what happened, he took me by the hand and led me to the garden patio and showed me two potted cacti, where once there had been one.

“I rescued a cactus today,” he said.