Not Alone

  "Can I help you?" He asked, his vacant voice trilling absently through the cold winter air. City lights flashed behind him, and I heard the whispered wail of sirens in the distance. 

  "I'm lost." I said, folding my crinkled map back up. I tucked it snugly in my pocket. 

  "Lost? Where are you trying to go?" He looked up at me and smiled in a way that said, I know just where I am. You'll never be lost once you've found what I have. 

  I hesitated. "I don't know. Somewhere better than where I left. Can you tell me where I am now?" Flustered, I drew out my map again, holding it out to him. He didn't take it.

 Instead he asked me, "Who are you wandering with?" 

  The word "wandering" took me but surprise. But as I thought about it, I realized it was true. He was right, and I grew suddenly serious. 

  "No one." I said. Sadness welled up inside me. "I'm alone." A tear slipped down my cheek, sprung from a sliver in my breaking heart. 

  He took my map in his hands and set it aside. Tipping my chin up, he looked at me and whispered, "None of us are alone."