Capable

🅲🅷🅰🅿🆃🅴🆁🅾🅽🅴

NIALL

"I'll see ya tomorrow night, Lindsay!" I shouted over my shoulder, pushing against the glass door of the old gas station.

"You have a lovely night, too, Niall!" the gray-haired woman called back from behind the register, an antique smile on her face as I stepped out into the lamp lit parking lot.

I'd just brought Lindsay, the owner of the old gas pump I was now filling my car up with, her medicine. She lived out here in the middle of nowhere, her living quarters just a little room in the back of the station. Her ability to get around had been taken away when her husband died and she found herself unable to go out because of her poor health.

So, twice a week, after I'd finished working my shift in the hospital, I drove the hour and a half out of town to pay the woman a visit and see what she needed. We'd grown quite close, as a result, and I'd come to look forward to our little get-togethers as much as she did.

I set the nozzle back in it's holder in the metal gas pump after I'd finished refueling, I climbed into my car. Wiping my hands on my scrubs shirt and then groaning inwardly as I saw how dirty it was, I'd have to wash it before tomorrow's shift.

Ugh.

I was just pulling away from the pump, when a noise caught my ear from the opposite side of the station.

Curious, of course, I pulled my car around to the back of the little brick building and parked. Where the public bathrooms were, on the outside of the building, there was a kid, or, well, he looked a bit tall to be too young, stomping about and yanking on his hair with one hand, the other one balled into a fist and he using it to bash himself repeatedly in the side of his head with it. Loud wails poured from his thin body, I couldn't really make out any details sitting in my car, so I climbed out.

As I did, I saw an old man on the phone around the corner, in front of the building, looking intently at the boy, and making it clear he was talking to someone about him.i wondered if perhaps he was drunk or on drugs, perhaps.

I neared the sobbing figure and as I stepped into the light was able to make out his brown curls and messy clothes.

His cries were a chorus of "Mummy! Mumma! Where's she at? " and "I didn't mean to, I didn't mean to."

His shoulders shook violently as he stumbled around aimlessly continuing the assault on his curly mop and head.

I was tempted to let him get busted for whatever drugs he was on but, as I turned away from his pitiful state, I felt my conscience violently attack me. The voice of my mother echoed through my brain reminding me that things aren't always what they seem and all people deserve love, no matter the circumstances.

So I turned around with a sigh and walked directly up to the young man,"Excuse me?" I spoke softly, putting a hand out to rest on his arm.

He recoiled at the touch but lifted his gaze from the ground to look at me, the light shining to reveal his young features. His cheeks were still soft with his baby fat, dripping with tears, his lips full and swollen from crying.

His eyes were enormous and leaking steadily even as he eyed me curiously, his sobs fading into sniffles and hiccups.

He didn't say anything, and his eyes kept moving around, frantically trying to avoid looking directly into my own.

Realization dawned on me as I immediately recognized the symptom and proceeded with extreme caution.

"Hey there, I'm Niall," I spoke softly, trying not to talk too loud and frighten him," What's your name?"