Evan had decided to bring the stranger home. It was a small apartment, barely a room and a half. It was as clean as if everything was entirely new, but Evan was just a meticulous cleaner. He didn’t want anything out of place. A sand of dust did not belong here.

Even the dust that glimmers in light was barely there. The man got seated on a chair by Evan and noticed this. It looked like the dust basking in the light of the window was trying to flee. It kept running away from the light, as if not to be noticed, but with no avail. It was its fate to live and die by the light, yearning for darkness that was only a few inches from it.

“Tea?” Evan asked, setting over the kettle without waiting for an answer. With a floating movement, he went around the room with a wet cloth, and gently embraced the small specks of unsanitariness, that was trying to flee from drowning.

The man watched this, feeling like a tiny speck of life entered him once again. It was a beautiful and horrifying sight. He had just resonated with the specks a second ago, and now they had been swept up, being no more.

“It’s hot” Evan said, as he brought over the tea, placing it in front of the man, that now looked like someone who could blink. Had something changed? Evan wondered, but immediately got caught up in the shoes the man was wearing instead.

“Oh, Sir!” He shrieked, pulling off the shoes, gently. The man sat there, stiff as a doll, unmoving as a mountain and let the dust killer do to him what he pleased.

Evan continued to take off the socks, bringing over a cloth, soap and hot water to wash the naked pair of feet that now peaked out of the long pant sleeves.

“Excuse me” Evan said, focusing deeply on the task at hand. How could he have been this careless, as to let someone go in with dirty shoes? He really wasn’t quite himself today at all.

He cleaned diligently, scrubbing each toe until it turned red, leaving both of the feet with thin skin, red and hurting.

But even so, the man didn’t let it show. He didn’t feel the hurt that was supposed to surround his feet into a warm and agonizing embrace. He simply didn’t care enough to notice.

“Sir, your tea will go cold” Evan said as he started cleaning up his small entrance, ridding himself of the trail of asphalt and stones, that had followed them with each step indoors.

He picked up the small stones, one by one, slowly moving towards scrubbing the floor, and then washing it, only to dry it off so the wooden floor wouldn’t get hurt by the water.

Evan then moved over to the chair beside the man, took a cup of tea for himself, and turned on the TV. As if there wasn’t a single thing in life that was more normal than his current situation.

“Anything you want to see, Sir?” Evan asked, scanning each channel as he went, not paying much attention to his new roommate. The man was simply sitting there, moving his eyes occasionally, breathing so slowly and carefully it seemed like he didn’t breathe at all.

Evan chose a channel and continued to speak to the man casually. He commented on the shows they watched. He commented on politics. He talked about his friends.

“And then he just told me to shut up!” Evan stood up to show how the scene had played out.

“How dare he?” He asked, moving down from the chair as he calmed himself down a bit.

“But I suppose he just has to calm down a bit, and then we’ll go back to be best friends again” Evan continued, going into the kitchen, putting more water over.