Drunk and Emotional

I meant to write about this sooner, I wish I had, because the feeling was stronger. Here I am now getting the memory committed to type, only a week or so late. I was behind the register at my place of work, where I find myself from time to time, and a young man walked into the store, stumbled in really, and announced to me that he was incredibly intoxicated, not in so many words. Without his announcement it would have been plain to see he had been drinking. By the look of his eyes it seemed as though he may have been drunk for the last few weeks, but that had a different explanation, which I will get into shortly. I was immediately a little bit nervous, because humans under the influence of very large amounts of alcohol are unpredictable. He stood in front of the counter trying to figure out what he wanted to say or do or think or purchase. He spoke to me a bit again about how drunk he was, but this time he added, "It's been a bad day." to which I replied, "hopefully it's about to get a lot better." he liked that, but then explained the burden that was on him that night by saying, "We buried my homie today." which, for a moment led my mind in the wrong direction, with the image of this guy and a few of his friends burying their other friend in the woods. Of course that image soon went away when he explained that his friend had overdosed on heroin earlier in the week and his funeral had been that day. He picked out some candy and bought Marlboro reds, not because he liked them but because they were the cigarettes his late friend smoked. I rang him up, he paid, I went to give him his change and noticed something falling onto the counter... They were large teardrops rolling down his face and plunging toward the ground. He was a wreck. On his way out a friend of his walked in and they hugged in the doorway while sobbing uncontrollably. This was not the last I would see of this guy. He came back a few moments later to buy a single swisher, to roll a blunt with. I tried to be very comforting to him the whole time, and he seemed to really appreciate that. I felt very emotional for a while after he left. I suppose this is evidence of some kind of connection I have with other humans.
On a lighter note, last night, with only two people working the overnight on the eve of Halloween, I had a guy come in dressed as Tony the Tiger. He came up to me and asked if I knew what he was supposed to be, I said, "Tony the Tiger?" which made him very happy. His friend popped in for a moment and then proceeded back outside. Tony went about the store for a couple of minutes then materialized in front of me again asking where his friend was. I told him his friend had gone back outside and he went to leave, as he did so he was walking a little funny and I could hear bottles clanging about in his pants. I looked in his direction and said, "Smooth." he looked back, smiled and ran. The audacity will never cease to amaze me. I wish him well.