I Think of You When You’re Not Here

As I was playing ‘Over the Rainbow’ while busking at the 14th street subway station, Joe Lucas, the homeless guy with the hook arm, showed up. I haven’t seen him in months. He went to Montana to visit a friend and then to Rhode Island to visit his sister. It was wild that he showed up right as I was playing his favorite song.
“Why did you come back to New York?”, I asked him.
“Because I missed you!”, he said.
He sat on the bench for a while. He then asked me to play ‘Over the Rainbow’ again. After listening to it he walked down to the uptown train platform, waving good-bye to me.

A lady told me that her youngest brother died two Fridays ago. He was 61 years old. He came home from church, ate, watched TV and all of a sudden his wife heard a strange noise. She came into the room and he was dead. It was a sudden heart attack. The lady told me that they used to be 10 kids in her family. By now it’s only her and her little sister left.
I told her that she has a lot of angles watching over her. She said she feels it.

A lady said to me: “I think of you when you’re not here”.

A guy said to me: “I’m sorry I don’t have any change but I like what you do a lot”.