?I didn’t see anyone.
8.\tI stopped and looked at the picture again. This time, I saw a fellow in a wheelchair trying to get my attention.
9.\t“Like it?” I thought I heard him ask.
10.\tIt was hard for me to hear him. The tent was crowded and very loud. I moved closer to him.
11.\t“ Do I like it?Yes,I really do,but…”
12.\tHe started talking again, but it was hard for me to understand him. He talked very softly and slowly, drawing his words out to the point where my mind had a hard time following them.
13.\t“I like…to paint…,” he said.
14.\t“ Really?” I asked,noticing for the first time that there were many other paintings in his booth.
15.\t“I like your paintings very much.” I continued. “ How do you come up with so many things to paint?”
16.\t“It’s easy…” he replied. “Any…one can do… it. All you… have to do… is get an idea… in your head…decide…what you want… to do,and do… it.”
17.\tHe then shared with me how he had painted the sun picture. The entire conversation took about 15 minutes. Fifteen painful minutes. As he struggled to get the words out and I struggled to understand them, I learned a lesson I have never forgotten.
18.\t“ How much for this painting?” I asked.
19.\t“Five… dollars…” was the reply.
20.\tI gave him the$5,put my prize under my arm,and left.
21.\tIt had taken Billy Williams 15 painful minutes to teach me a lesson I’ve kept close to my heart for the following 28 years. This awkward-looking young man,hands gnarled,legs twisted,tongue thick,had broken the code on a part of life I hadn’t even known existed.
22.\tThe man who made one of the greatest impacts on my life is someone who will never know it. I’ve never seen him again.
23.\tHe would never be able to overcome his physical challenges, but he had learned to deal with them. He had learned that doing what he wanted to do was simply a matter of getting an idea,deciding what he wanted th