The Man Across the Street

He has schizophrenia, or so it seems. He paces back and forth on the sidewalk talking, sometimes yelling. He doesn’t drive that I know of, and I think the farthest he usually walks is the gas station. He must be so lonely. I’ve always thought he was hallucinating when he talked and yelled when no one was actually there, but maybe there’s times when he’s not. Maybe he’s so lonely and feels so isolated that he’s talking and yelling to try to make himself feel like he’s not so alone. Maybe he talks and yells because thankfully, he knows that his neighbors know he is not a threat to anyone as long as we leave him alone when he’s agitated and allow him to talk and yell and we don’t overreact and call the police, risking unnecessary injury to him or the police or him being put in jail. Maybe at times he knows no one is there but he’s doing the only thing he knows to feel less alone.