What about today?

His name is Chuck. He's a roofer.

I was standing in back of the venue after an amazing Kylie Campion show. He'd been hanging around, talking to some folks as they passed but not really bothering anyone. He was just there, part of the scenery I guess. You might move away if he got too close, I probably would've done the same on any other night.

After most of the folks hanging out had left, he came over and said hey. He asked if I could get him some food. I had a dollar in cash on me and didn't know the area too well, but looking over my shoulder there was a Mexican Restaurant.

"Yknow what I really don't get?" he began almost as soon as we had sat down. "I had to shut off all the TV and the news and all that crap because I just can't take it." His voice stumbled out more like a rolling grumble of syllables than words. The whole time I was straining to decipher meaning amongst the low gravel.

"What's that?" I asked, nervously staring down at the menu. I'd already eaten, so when the server came, I just got a coke.
"Order anything for me," He said, "I don't speak Espanol so you order for me."

"What would you like to drink?" She repeated, once again in non-accented American English.

He turned to me, looking me up and down. "Ask what kinda liquor they got."

"I'm not buying you alcohol," I said. "You want a soda?"

"Okay," he sighed, "Fine. Dr. Pepper."

A minute of silence led back to, "...yeah, what bothers me just...what pisses me off so much is this--You hear all this stuff from like two thousand years ago, from like 2000 B.C., but it's 2013, yknow what I'm saying? Do you know what I'm saying to you, man? It's all this preaching about two thousand years back and tell me what...what does any of that stuff have to do with right here and now."

I leaned and nodded, not knowing what to say, but thankfully he quickly filled up the silence.

"I just wonder, after everything I've seen. All the things that are going on in the world, I wonder where he is...where God is yknow. Moses parting waters (though I'm not too sure about that) and with Jonah, you hear about all that...and Jesus died and came back after three days but then what's the point 'cause...and you seem like a true believer but yknow I'm not sure but yknow I am a real true believer but I gotta say where'd he go? What about today? Where did God fuck off to when they bomb us and we bomb them?"

I noticed something wet making a small trail down his cheek. There was a glimmer to the red on the edges of his eyes and he was silent for a few moments just looking at me, pleading with me.

Not sure why I said it, but I asked him, "What would you say to him if you could talk to him?"

"Say to who?"

"To God. What would you ask him?"

"Hmm, well, you know what? I'd ask that sonofabitch where the fuck he's been for this whole time? Y'hear all this two thousand year ol' preaching and y'hear all these miracles and stuff from back but this is today. Now, I've been a roofer, and a crackhead, and a drunk, and a, uh...and everything and so I know what I mean yknow...Where's he been? He sleepin' or...or..."

I watched the tide overcome the walls and he unwrapped his napkin from around the silverware. When he set it down, it was marked by two dark circles.

"Grew up in an orphanage way back when, yknow," he said after the Waitress had brought him two big plates of food. I'd told him I got something with lots of choices, so if he didn't like something he could have something else. He'd thanked me and dove right in. "'Ts'really good."

"Grew up in an orphanage with my brother and I and..." The food made it even harder to pick through his mumbling, but he kept on. I sipped my coke and tried not to stare at the tears as they fell while still looking respectfully in his tired eyes.

Just keep nodding and smiling, I thought, as I struggled to listen. What was I supposed to say? Why am I even here? Okay, Luke, pay attention.

"...and he was younger. He liked guys, yknow, but I like girls, and he got AIDS and died. Maybe 20, 25 years or longer, ago...I don't...when we were growing up there'd be 40 guys and 40 girls in the orphanage and I had to stick up for him when the older guys would all go after him. You mess with my brother, you mess with me. Yknow what I mean? You fuck with him, you fuck with me? 'Cause I'm his older brother. I was his older brother."

He raised his napkin to his eyes again. He gave me his phone number and told me about being a roofer. "One roof, let me do it, and you'll see how great I am. Just, Luke, you gotta supply the ladder, okay?"

Walking back to my car, I passed a church's night service getting out, folks talking, laughing, arguing.

Went back to the house and ready for work, but I stopped by my friend's birthday party before my shift. One or two of them had seen me leave the parking lot with Chuck, had stopped by to say they were going to the party, to check on me.

"That was really cool, man."

Nah, it wasn't, I thought, All I could think the whole time was how I'm gonna blog about it later.