A Good Man
It’s a late Saturday afternoon in early March, and I am sweating in search of the only gift my son wants from Los Angeles: a ____1____ to the homes of the stars such as Brad Pitt and Jet Li.
A cheerful taxi driver says, “No problem. Map sellers are everywhere!” When the taxi stops, a fellow ____2____ with a thin folded sheet and says: “Ten dollars.”
Ten dollars! With absolute ____3____, I inform him, “That’s too much.” The map man leaves. I begin walking, certain I’ll find a (an) ____4____ star map soon.
I am ____5____. There’s hardly anybody on the street. There don’t seem to be many real stores, just cars and bars. No maps. No stars. Blocks pass. The sun begins to sink. At the edge of West Hollywood, ____6____ fellow wanders ahead, selling star maps to some teenage girls.
Ten dollars ____7____. Forget it. My son will ____8____.
That night, I call my wife. “Did you get one of those maps to the stars? He’s been talking about ____9____ else.”
This ____10____ is hard to ignore, It’s late. At all-night markets: no maps. I head back to the hotel. Morning is coming. There will be one last ____11____. After I check out, I take a taxi. But at nine in the morning, map sellers are ____12____ to be found.
“You know,” says the driver, “The guys with the maps just ain’t up yet!” He’s right.
“Forget it. Let’s go to the airport.”
“Well,” says the driver, “I could ____13____ you one if you like.”
Sure. Trust this guy? I might as well throw cash onto the freeway. But exiting the taxi, I ____14____ my last chance. I hand him $13 and my business card. Three weeks pass. I’ve ____15____ on the star map. My son has stopped mentioning it.
Then one afternoon, sticking out from under piles of flyers, there it is: a big white envelope. There is a small note. I can hardly read it, ____16____ I make out a few phrases一“forgive ____17____,” “taxi’s been down” and, finally, “here’s map for your son.” There’s no return address. It’s signed, “kind regards, M.”
I hold the note in my hand, ____18____ what my son said to me when I got back from Los Angeles.
“Did you meet any ____19____, Dad?” he asked.
Now I know what to tell him.
“Yes, I did. I met a guy named M.”
If you never ____20____ anybody, you’ll never find the good guys.