He was just homesick!-A Thought Provoking Story

I was going to buy a pack of cigarettes and I had to cross a wide open field to get to the shop. The night, the absence of light, the presence of dark, the music I listened to while walking, were all too pleasant! Until I saw a guy, with tears in his eyes, unaware of the fact that his legs where doing this circle like motions on the ground. He seemed to have forgotten the fact that he was supposed to answer the person he was talking to, on his mobile phone. As I walked on, I thought to myself, everyone is fighting battles everyday, every moment of life, which others are not aware of. All it takes is a little smile, a lending hand, a listening ear, a piercing look that can pierce through the walls one has built to protect the ones they care for, to find that agony, pain, deceit hidden deep inside them. It echoed in my mind, throw away the conceit, help him! Talk to him! I took a step back, walked up to him. I knew he was in pain, I wanted to help him, I wanted to let him know, that humanity is still alive. He can get help, all he needed to do was open up. But all I could muster to say to his face was, "Hi!". He looked at me with a face of a broken man, silently stood up, walking the walk of a man who had lost it all, putting his broken mobile into his pocket, walked a little farther and turned around saying "Hi."and he walked away from the help I would offer him. As I walked to the shop, it hit me. People aren't always supposed to be there for each other. I realized when I said "Hi!", I had woken him from his own world, the place where he felt he was at home, where he could cry, scream, break, the place where he needed to be. The place deep inside his mind where nobody else could reach him at. He needed to be left alone, not for eternity, not for a day, but just for a moment, to take time to walk to his 'home' and get rid of his homesickness. To get away just for a brief moment and that would bring him serenity.