I take my hand back and I give him a moment to process.

While he’s doing that, I reach over to grab my waterskin and take a swig. As he looks at what I’m doing it’s easy to see that the old man’s thirsty too, so I toss over my waterskin to him when I’m done. He takes a sip, still eyeing me … and then another before he passes it back.

Whilst we now awkwardly sit in silence I sum up the status quo that’s between this old man and I in my head. Number one, I’ve saved his life and cared for him while he recovered from his illness, though I’m not sure how much of that he has gathered. Number two, he has woken up and after some initial confusion we have introduced ourselves. Now, number three - establishing communications.

What to say?

What should I say?

What do people usually talk about when they meet for the first time?

Where are you from? - Like I’m going to be able to explain that.

What do you do? - I beg for scraps during the day and at night I sleep in a pile of garbage.

How are you? - Pretty shit. Like I said earlier, I beg on the streets and live in a garbage pile and I’m barely managing to… Oh. Hang on!

I turn around to my side of the shelter as Elde watches me closely as I grab what he’s been missing. I turn back to see him recognise what I’m now holding in my hands.

His crutch. Which I then hand over to him.

Seeing this he pauses momentarily before reaching out and taking it back. When it’s back in his hands he gives a quick look over to make sure it seems alright.

After he’s done examining it, I get his attention by waving my hands in front of him. Having accomplished that I then motion to myself as I stand up. I look back at him and do a sort of back and forth hand movement thing to try and ask him if he can manage to stand up too. The message seems to get through to him thankfully enough so he starts to arrange his legs and his crutch before he makes his attempt to stand. Alas, as soon as he gets off the ground he immediately starts tipping over and so I have to dive in and catch him.

In my arms, he looks up at me and I can see the question in his eyes. Can he trust me?

I grip his arm and I nod back my answer and after some consideration that seems to be enough to satisfy him. From that, we work together to get him standing up and then proceed to make our way out of the shelter.

It’s still dark but the sky is beginning to light up. I can tell that the start of the day and with it the morning march to the docks will be here soon enough. I turn to the old man and I can see that he seems to be somewhat relieved, with a slight hint of disappointment, that he recognises where he is. I indicate with my hands to suggest that he try walking by himself and he nods in agreement before he then pushes off me to try and stand alone.

It’s clear that he’s struggling. It only takes him a few steps before I have to rush in and catch him again before he falls. He’s not strong enough to make it to the docks by himself and for now at least, he needs some more time to recover before he can make his way back to his begging again. He’s going to have to stay here at the shelter until he’s ready.

I help him make his way back over to the front of the shelter before setting him down against the crumbling down wall. It’s clear to both of us what’s going to have to happen and so it only takes a few hand gestures to affirm that today, I’ll be going to do my begging, and he’ll have to wait here for me until I get back. I take a big drink from the waterskin before I leave it in his hands again before I turn away and begin making my way to the docks.

“Barde.”

I turn back to the old man as I hear him speak to me for only the second time; using the name that he gave me. I can see the furrow on his brow, the uncomfortable look on his face as he looks down... until I see his expression morph into some sort of resolve before he looks back up to me.

“Ghewa der.”

I don’t know the words but their meaning is clear as day.

Thank you.

It brings a smile to my face as I do the polite thing and nod back to him.

“You’re welcome.”

***************************************************************************************************************

It’s getting dark as I make my way back to my shelter. The cart was later than usual today, just my luck, so I hope the old man isn’t getting too worried. I hope he’s left me some water too. Too dark to try my luck trekking through the streets and bushland to the river. I've brought him some food back as well so he should have had the good sense not to try and test my generosity.

I turn the final corner, keeping my eye out not to step on any rats or snakes that are hiding on the ground. I did it once and once was enough.

He’s there. Praise be. And he looks somewhat relieved to see me too. I hurry over to him and take a spot next to him before I hand him his food.

He grabs it quickly and wastes no time scoffing it down however little of it there is. While he’s doing that I pick up my waterskin lying at his feet and happily find that there is still some water remaining. Makes sense I guess. Some old people can be entitled, but they wouldn’t live as long as they did without developing some common sense.

With both of us fed and watered it's time to start putting into practice what I’ve been throwing around in my head throughout the day. This old man needs me for now. Hell, he owes me for a lot more than that so I might as well put him to good use.

“Elde” I say, and it gets his attention.

He looks over to me. There’s no point for me to try and explain it so I can only hope he figures out what I’m getting at. I take my waterskin and I shake it in front of him before I pour out a little bit of it into my hand and raise it up to him.

“Water” I say

“...”

Come on Elde.

“Water”

“Oueda?”

Yes. First word down. Only a million or so more to go.

“Oueda?”

“...Oueda.”

I smile at that and he has what looks like a faint smirk as well. I repeat it a few more times to make sure I’m getting the cadence and the pronunciation right enough until Elde nods at me indicating it's good enough.

Alright, next word.

I grab a part of my now quite long and dirty blonde hair and raise it up to him.

“Hair”

“Juda”

“Juda?”

“Juda.”

Second word down. The light in the sky is going to run out soon so I’ll try and get in as many words as possible before it gets too late and we have to get to bed.

Looking back at Elde he seems to understand what’s going on. I look after him and he helps me out. We seem to have reached an agreement.

Okay. Next word. I raise my hand up and point to my face.

“Eye.”