Short Story: Second Chances

Let's make up a man. Let's not give him a name. This keeps him faceless and detachable. Let's make up a girl. Let's name her Annie. This gives her an identity and attributes to her humanity.

It's the late 1700s. People live in small villages for the most part and cell phones aren't the greatest thing since sliced bread because they don't exist, and for that matter neither does sliced bread. Our man, the one we made up, was walking home from his job keeping up horses. His odor and mood were both very foul and he wanted nothing more than to go home and eat and drink and fall asleep. On his way, he saw a blind boy feeling his way along the walls of the alley they were in and saw the panic in the boy's face as he ran out of wall to guide himself along. The man did nothing though. In fact, he remained as quiet as he could so the boy didn't sense him and ask for help. After all, the man really just wanted to get home. When the boy passed, the man continued toward his living quarters of which he was the sole inhabitant. On the way, in the village square, he saw that there was an event in the town hall. It appeared to be open to everyone so he decided to mosey in and see if he couldn't score a hit of whiskey. 

At first, the obnoxious music of a local ensemble almost drove him immediately out. Above the noise, he heard giddy town girls screaming, "Annie! Annie! Come dance with us, would you?" The girl to whom he assumed this was directed at looked up from a bench looking exhausted. The girls ran over to her and she tried to reason her way out of another dance, but 'no' is an optional part of any child's vocabulary, and the girls currently weren't adopting it. Meanwhile, our man leaned against the door with his arms folded watching this little exchange. He smirked, realizing that because of his heavy work schedule, he'd forgotten the delight girls brought him.