Strange but True: A tale of two homeless men

To begin let me say I have had weird and paranormal things happening around me since I was two I am thrifty four now. This story I like to share happened to me in the early 2000s while I was going to Columbia College in my home city of Chicago.
Out of all the paranormal happens in my life I am not sure how to categorize this one. The reason I say there are two of them is due to the similar closing message each man gave me you’ll see as you read on. But later I came to believe my actions I took with the first homeless man is what opened the way to the second and he is the one who truly haunts me.
It was just at the end of summer as I began my second semester at Columbia. I was hungry and on my way to Wendys to get some lunch when I first laid eyes on him. He was an elderly gentleman sitting on the street corner across from where I was standing. My feet without thinking about it went over to him. He had white hair and sharp blue eyes. He told me his name was Tom and he was hungry. I told him I was on my way to go eat and I invited him to join me at Wendy’s. He smiled at me, I remember it being a warm smile I never had a grandfather but I imagined that is what a grandfather smile looked like. He got up and we both went across the street to eat.
I ordered my food and when it came time for Tom to order his the woman behind the counter look at me as if I were crazy. She seemed to be ignoring Tom completely and I was getting angry at the lack of competition this young woman was showing to him. A verse from the Bible came to mind What the least you do unto my brothers you do unto me. So I ended up ordering for Tom he didn’t get much a burger and a coffee we shared my fries. Upon later inspection of the incident in my memory, everyone at the place was looking at me the same way the young woman was looking. Later I would dream about ordering for Tom and I only Tom’s clothing stood in place empty like the invisible man.
We made small talk he was very interested in what I was studying at Columbia and the like. We finished and I walked Tom back across the street to where we had met I offered to give him the couple of bucks I had left in my wallet. He refused this gesture. He told me to come back and see him any time he was always right here.
Tom was never at the corner again I looked form him every day until I graduated from Columbia.
A couple weeks go by and it had been raining so I was in my long coat and hat. Once again I was on my way to go eat and thought about Tom to see how he was doing and hoping he was there. That is when I met him the old crippled black vet.
I call him that was because he was on a pair of crutches wearing green military fatigues. It was like a moment frozen in time I stood there watching this man. He was standing in the middle of the sidewalk attempting to pick up a styrofoam cup he had dropped. The people on the sidewalk just passing by this man not looking at him, not offering to go help. I walked over to him feeling as if I was in a dream. I bent down and picked up the cup and gave it to him.
The dream sensation only intensified as we fell into a conversation. I felt like I had stepped into a bubble and there was this odd tingling sensation at the back of my head as we talked.
I like to say I remember the conversation and how enlightening it was but the truth is as soon as I left him the conversation with the exception of three points was pulled from my memory and try as I might I can never remember the rest.
I also noticed while the old crippled black vet and I talked to this bubble people who passed was strangely guided around us. Some of these people were looking at phones and newspapers but they moved around us as if lead on by an invisible force.
The Vet told me that the great God watched down upon this great city and point out a statue on top of a building to me. The statue is one of the Greek goddess Ceres as soon as I saw this statue it felt like a veil had been lifted from my eyes. I stood dumfounded wondering how the hell I could have missed that statue all this time. Even now I can always find that statue.
The next point he told me was that God made the devil blind. When he cast the devil down he frightened the angels so much God struck him blind and that is why he needs men to do his work.
I had an imitate chill and a hot ball of led fill my stomach at this phrase I have it even now typing it. I offered the Vet food which he turned down. He then told me to come back and see him anytime he was always right here.
He like Tom was never there again I search for him the way I searched for Tom. But I do see the Old crippled black Vet only in my dreams and not in physical reality.
In the dreams, he and I stand under an overcast sky I in my long coat and hat; he on his crutches. We stand on the sidewalk where we met. We never say anything to each other. The city of Chicago stands abandoned in these dreams and he and I survey the now vacant city. Needless to say, I wake up with a start and chills when I have these dreams.
When I am downtown for whatever reason these days and if I am not paying attention I find myself wondering to the spots Tom and the Vet told me they would be at but like always they are never there.
Last year I had a really bad start when I had a memory of the Vet. I was working overnight security at a construction site and thought of him and jokingly said out loud Had this been a twilight zone episode the old black vet would have been God. I was filled with an immediate sense of panic. My heart began to race, chills ran up and down my spine while my stomach filled with hot air. The sensation of eyes (thousands of them) both hostile and nonhostile watching me. Closing my eyes and screaming was all I could do from running out and abandoning my post.

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