Red Noses

Once there was a sick man.

Physically sick he was. Not mentally.

The man had a name tag on him labeled DASRO and he had just left his workplace. Not that he was finished working of course.

"Can't have you here with that look." His co worker said. "Even if it's just a cold the last thing we need is you sneezing at impossible rates and spreading germs to customers."

The irony in him leaving early is that he has co workers that have a habit of smoking just outside the convience store in the back. "Not that it would make any difference if I wasn't sick." He said. "Nobody there I can talk about music. All they know is pop music and auto tuned stuff."

He was still walking on the side walk, and in front was a stair case. From the left, a youth wearing a beanie jumped the staircase on his skateboard. The youth's face came into contact with the pavement as the skateboard slipped on its front wheels.

'Jeez' thought the sick man in surprise as he approached the crashed youth. "You alright?"

The youth laughed hysterically. "For goodness sake!" the youth started as he got up on his feet slowly. The youth's nose was bleeding from his nostrils, and there was a slight bruise on his temple. "Failed again."

"Take a seat. Get that bleeding sorted up."

"I'm fine mister."

"Anybody with common sense would tell you otherwise." The sick man had the youth on the bench.

"What happened to you?" the youth asked, pointing to the man's nose.

"Sick." The man said before he sneezed loudly, covering his mouth with his shoulder. "Sorry."

"It's all good." The youth said. The man wanted to get up, yet he wanted to sit down and relax a bit. His eyes monitored the youth, whose skateboard was placed in front of him. The man noticed a patch on the youth's jacket. It belonged to a certain band the man was very familiar with.

"You like Rolling Stones?"

"Yeah. You as well sir?"

"You bet." The man smiled. "Sympathy for the Devil?"

The youth took out his phone, and clicked on his music playlist. The said song was starting.

"Please allow me to introduce myself. " The youth started singing. "I'm a man of wealth and taste"

The man smiled. "I've been around for a long, long year. Stole many a man's soul to waste" he continued.

The two went on to sing the song. As they carried on, the sky shifted into crimson, as the song began to be louder than before. The man could now hear the song as if played from a speaker, but there was no sign of one.

Even if there was the sight of two cars crashing into each other and sheer metal flying over the road along with broken glass, the two men with red noses didn't notice. Nor did they see across the street where a two men on a motorcycle grabbed hold of a lady's bag. The lady grasped onto the straps of her bag, but one of the men on the motorcycle used his might, getting the bag and the lady, letting go, fell onto the ground, her face making contact with the pavement.

The sick man and the youth kept on singing, as the ground below them shook and cracks were starting to form. They soon reached the end of the song.

That was something, the sick man thought as he looked at his surroundings. Strange, he thought, I swore I heard something, but nothing. The youth looked the sick man's direction. Nothing was happening either.

"So" the sick man started. "That the only song you know?"

"I got all of their songs here mister." the youth said.

"I think this is the start of a good conversation." replied the sick man. Maybe a friendship too.