The intense wind and rain slap against the high-rise buildings you walk beside on a moderately busy street. The strong gusts allow the rain to worm it's way inside your raincoat, dampening your face, neck, and hands. This isn't a pleasant summer rain, it's cold outside, most likely the last rain of the season before snow takes over. The noise of the rain is deafening as it pounds against the concrete, cars, and buildings relentlessly.
You just got off work at a pizza place just down the street around 4:00pm, and daylight's fading quickly thanks to the storm that's been brewing in the sky all day. Luckily for you, your studio apartment is only a couple blocks away, and you'll be inside before you know it. You didn't understand the need for a car when your apartment is so close to everything, so you sold it when you moved here. This is the biggest storm you've seen since moving here in the Spring, and it makes you re-evaluate that decision. Maybe picking up a car before winter would be a good idea.
You hasten your pace down the street as cars rush past, people hurrying to get home before the climax of rush hour traffic begins. Your thoughts drift to hunger as the cold begins to sneak inside your bones, and you remember you haven't eaten since the night before, too busy at work to take a break to eat. Some beer and a BLT sandwhich is what you had dredged up for yourself. Your stomach grumbles in protest as you think about food, and it dawns on you that you still have $10 in your wallet, but it's the last of your money until tomorrow when your paycheck hits your bank account.
On your right side up ahead you spot a sign for a bagel shop you'd passed by many times, but haven't actually gone in yet. The only other options were some fast food joints, but you'd have to go out of your way to get to them, and walk further to get home. Bagels it is, it's slightly healthier after all anyway.
The bagel shop nears, and you look up to its windows that feature the daily specials, when something catches your eye. To the right of the bagel shop is an small alleyway, normally empty and devoid of activity.
Someone's sitting there, their head hung low, hiding their face, but you can still make out the soggy gray mass of a man's hairstyle. You grew up in a smaller town before moving here, too small to have any transients. This is your first time seeing one here. But something's off.
It takes you a second to realize what's wrong with the image, but it dawns on you. He has a coat, but he's not wearing it. He's holding it. Curiosity gets the better of you, and you make your way into the alley. The rain is less intense between the buildings, but the amount coming down from the gap between them is still enough to give you a good soaking.
The man's head is still pointed downwards as he sits cross-legged on the wet concrete. Raindrops fall to his aged hair and drip down the sides of his face, bouncing off the small coat below. It was the kind of coat you'd wear in a light sprinkle of rain, not a freezing downpour. Obviously he didn't have the means to prepare for this weather.
Just as you're about to ask him why he's holding his coat instead of wearing it, you hear something mixed in with the onslaught of rain around you.
A whimper.
The man raised his head instantly, shifting the bundle of clothing a bit, and the head of a mostly dry puppy pops out, and it whimpers again as the cold rain drips from the man's face and lands on its little brown nose. The man suddenly notices your presence in front of him, and looks up to you. His face is quite aged just like his hair, he's probably 60-70 years old, but his eyes are still bright in the surrounding gloomy weather, though clearly plagued by fatigue.
He doesn't say anything as he stares at you, and the situation explains itself. He wasn't simply not wearing the coat, he was using it to keep the puppy warm and dry, figuring that he would probably survive the storm without the extra protection, but the puppy wouldn't.
What would you do?
