I saw this big fat boisterous happy hairy Turkish man in a shop every day when I lived there. He was such a jokester, he was messing with customers constantly and was definitely a well known character and part of the local lore, he would always fuck with you as soon as he saw you, and it really brightened my day, everyone’s day!

And one day in between laughs he just kind of zoned out, and I could tell that something really sad struck him, some kind of hopelessness, an existential anguish or something, as if it were written across his forehead in neon letters, and it just sank me.

This mountain of a man, always laughing, always hearty, suddenly sad, like, a puppy whose master had died, and it was crushing to me.