Beautiful Freak
I was on my way home at about 3 am one night, and in the town where I grew up, in California, there was one stop light. It was set so that in the middle of the night, it would be green, but as soon as any car approached, it would quickly switch to red. I think the idea was to stop people cruising through town at 100 miles an hour. Anyways, I was heading home and had to stop abruptly at this light. I was listening to music very loud, and I was into the eels at the time. As I slammed to a stop in the middle of the night at this traffic light, a man started out into the crosswalk in front of me. My stereo started blaring out Beautiful Freak.
“You’re such a, beautiful freak”
The man was wearing forearm crutches, the ones with cups on them that your arms go into. I recognized them because my uncle had cerebral palsy.
“I wish there were more just like you”
He was walking in a rickety, staggering but practiced fashion, with his crutches. I was mortified!
“You’re not like all of the others”
I was paralyzed, I could not move, could not turn off the stereo, could not take my hands off the steering wheel or my eyes off the man as he slowly made his way across the road.
“And that is why I love you
Beautiful freak, beautiful freak”
The man made it to the other side of the road. The light changed to green. The invisible grip released me; I slowly drove off the line. I felt like I was in the presence of an Angel. The entire scene, with the streetlights coming in the window, the music blaring out, and the beautiful freak with his crutches in the street were permanently seared into my memory.
Since the experience seemed so much more than human, it wasn’t until years later that I thought of how that must have looked and felt from the man’s perspective. Maybe he needed to hear those words at just that time!
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