Charlie's 3am Friend

Charlie would come in at 3am
Almost every night

I guess he was kind of a night owl
Or an insomniac
Or whatever

This was at the gas station
Where I worked

It wasn't really in a highly-populated area
So after around 9pm
You wouldn't get many customers

Just the occasional trucker
And random guys
I assumed were serial killers

Then, after I worked there
For about a year
Charlie would start coming in

It was just after he retired I guess
Local teacher from the high school

Guys don't handle retirement well

Women join clubs
Stage manage community theater
Slowly kill their husbands
By making them fix
Everything around the house

That's how they survive retirement

But guys don't fare well

They do odd things

I assumed that's what was happening with Charlie

He'd come in at around 3am
Buy some peanut M&M's
And a Coke
And then chitchat for a little while
About this and that

His daughter
His old job
His friend that he plays Monopoly with

Eventually the chitchat
Stretched out into actual conversation
Until we got to the point
Where we were talking
For an hour or more

I didn't mind it

I could see he needed the intellectual stimulation
And I did study philosophy in college
So I'm pretty good conversationalist

Actually, I didn't go to college
What I mean is that I studied philosophy
Around the time
Most people are in college
Studying it
But at least I'm not up to my ass
In student loan debt
Because I wanted to find out
What Plato thought of life

I guess nobody told those college kids
That library cards
Are free

I worried about Charlie a little bit

I wondered what he did during the day
While I was sleeping off
My night shift

Who knows if his daughter
Or his Monopoly friend
Or even his home
Was real?

What if he was just sleeping on the sidewalk
Until 3am rolled around every night?

I know a lot of guys
Who would have just sold Charlie his candy and coke
And asked him to move along
So they could watch Youtube videos on their Ipod
Or sext with their girlfriends

But you see, I've always felt
That we all have a responsibility
To make each other's lives easier
If we can

If Charlie was a teacher
Then that means he probably made a difference
To a lot of people
Throughout his life
And the least I could do
Was pay attention to him
For an hour a night

When I left my job at the gas station
To move onto a career
As a full-time weed dealer
Me and Charlie sat out in the parking lot on my last night
And shared a bag of Doritos
Plus some beer I smuggled behind the counter

He asked me if I needed any money
And I told him that I don't believe in currency

I told him the only real value there is in life is kindness
And he'd already given me plenty

Charlie asked me how I got to be so wise
At such a young age
And I told him I smoke a lot of pot
And my grandmother raised me
And that seemed to make sense to him

I know you all think Charlie's dead
And yes, in a physical sense, he is
But you see, I believe in energies
And I can still feel Charlie's all around me

Every night at 3am when I'm watching Adult Swim
On Cartoon Network
And my buzz is just reached its peak
I feel Charlie come sit beside me
And chill, just chill

I'm glad I listened to him
While he was here on Earth
On a tangible plane

Think about all the people
Who spend their whole life not listening

Think about how many people
Pass a Charlie everyday
And never think to stop and ask him how he's doing

Man, I feel sorry for people like that

I really do