Things that break your heart

Walking to my class in Nishi-Shinjuku this morning, I took a narrow alley I rarely take. It was miserable, a light incessant funk hovering over the damp streets. Up ahead I saw a homeless man leaning over what looked to be a garbage can. As I neared him, I realised he was leaning over a dead ginger and white cat who (judging from the two seconds I could stand to look) had just been recently been hit by a car. The homeless man seemed to be in muted anguish, trying to pick up the dead cat. The sight of him maneuvering his hands under the cat's body was more than I could bear, both because I hate seeing dead animals (particularly cats, because I'm a cat-person) and the gentleness of the man's act. Was there a history here? Was the cat a stray who had befriended the man? I'll never know. Truth be known, I'm relieved I'll never know, 'cos I don't handle other people's grief well, stranger or not.

I had no idea when I woke up this morning I'd be a voyeur to someone's else pain.