He looked up at me with eyes which gleamed with glee, as if trying to guess what's flashing on the back of my mind.
"Do know, ...", his eyes bore into mine, and I was frozen, momentarily in the freezing space.
"no matter how bad/boring you think your life is, you're still better off than someone else in someone's eyes.."
I sit still, my heart flinched.
"Only to someone else. If I feel that I am in the worst possible condition, and am willing to trade with any beggar, then I am the world's poorest man"
He wheezes, and wheezes, and then I realized that he was in fact, chuckling.
I cast down my head to hide the hint of smile on my lips . He was coughing blood just moments ago - and here I am ! Almost laughing ! As I peered up at him through my fringe, amusement on my dry eyes, he smiled a sooty, toothy grin and yawned.
"But if someone else is willing to trade their places for yours. Then yours isnt the worst ! You're here on the mercy of the world. We gotta help each other get through life. And with that, we need to stop complaining and start moving. You sayin' yer the poorest man eh? I saved you yesterday. Now its yer turn ! come, help tie my shoelaces for me and you aint no poorest man anymore."
I looked up at him, trying to unfold the joke in his words.
"If its that easy, I wont be here in the middle of nowhere now , old man !" , I whispered, my throat hoarse.
"But its that easy indeed !" , he dug his mitten-clad hands into the sack behind him and, holding together a pair of stringed shoes, beckoned me with his chin.
"Come, I havent worn this for so loong. No one had ever come across this place for decades, and once these came off, I cant wear them back"
as he put down the shoes he held so gingerly down onto the damn earth, he took off his mittens, now and then glancing up at me and my stare. As he smiled and stripped his arms, I saw naked skin under the mittens , two gnarled thumbs, and no other fingers. "
"Chopped 'em off,- frostbite. ", he grinned, "I aint gonna die yet that time."
