Karen and I come out of the office at noon and see a man lying on the floor just outside our door. He is lying on his side and can’t be seen breathing, but has the smell of wine strong around him. Bill Mahoney is with us and he asks Karen if she knows who he is. She said, “Yep,” and headed for the alcoholic rehabilitation center. Mahoney stands over the man for a while and then leans down and gently shakes his shoulder. “Are you all right?” he says. The man slowly opens his eyes and says, “Yeah, yeah,” and turns back over to go to sleep again. Mahoney says, “Are you sick?” The man says, “Help me, help me,” and extends his hand, then pulls it back. Mahoney, with the beautiful, bland expression that is his alone, squats down by the man and says, “How do you feel?” The man says, “Why can’t my people get together? Why can’t they just get together?” Mahoney says, “We’re going to get together. Don’t worry about it. We are going to get together.” The man says, “Even after black power, we still can’t get together.” Mahoney says, “Yes, but after Attica, I think things will be a little different.” The man lapses into groans and tosses his head back and forth. Mahoney helps him sit up and the man holds Mahoney’s hand very tight. Mahoney asks him his name and where he lives. The man says it, but Mahoney can’t quite understand and asks him again and the man repeats it, a little indignantly like he’s annoyed to have to repeat himself. Then Karen comes with a man from downstairs at the rehab center and the man says roughly, “You better leave that dope alone. It will kill you.” Mahoney takes one side and the rehab man takes the other and they hoist the drunk guy, who says, “O-o-o-o-o! Dope! Did you hear what he said?” And he looks at Mahoney and shakes his head like “This is just what I was talking about,” even though, of course, it wasn’t. They head off down the hall and I remember what I know of Mahoney’s history. Freedom rides with baseball bats and firebombs waiting at the end of the line. Parchman Prison with holes in the ground for political prisoners. How did he manage to come through all of that still able to reassure a drunk man that everything is going to be all right?
All this, and it’s only noon.