The Watcher in the Glass

Description

Story Origins:

I had an itch I wanted to scratch, and The Watcher in the Glass allowed me to do exactly that.

Most of us live by routine. We walk the same streets every day, shop in the same places, stop for coffee at the same café and pass many of the same people. Before long, they simply become part of the scenery.

I have never found that easy.

I watch people. Those on their way to work or the shops. Those with time to spare. Those who seem to have nowhere to go. Some choose the life they lead. Others clearly do not. Occasionally you notice someone with sadness in their eyes, or a bruise that wasn’t there yesterday, and you find yourself wondering what happened.

I have worked alongside homeless people in both the United Kingdom and New York City. It taught me something I have never forgotten. You cannot solve everyone’s problems. You cannot always change their circumstances. Sometimes the most important thing you can do is simply acknowledge their presence. A smile. A greeting. A little conversation. For someone used to being overlooked, that can matter more than you imagine.

Those experiences stayed with me.

Then I began asking myself a question.

What if someone else noticed too?

Not someone driven by money or power, but someone who had quietly convinced himself that the law could not always protect the vulnerable. Someone prepared to build an entire philosophy around stepping into the gaps that society too often leaves behind.

That was how Mister came into being.

Everything that follows in this story is fiction, but the world he inhabits is not. Every town, shopping street, and railway station, contains people whose stories we never hear because we are too busy living our own lives.

I am not asking anyone to agree with Mister. Quite the opposite. His choices raise difficult questions that every reader must answer for themselves.

If, after closing the book, you find yourself looking a little more carefully at the people you pass each day, then perhaps the story will have achieved something beyond simply entertaining you.

Sometimes all it takes is someone to pause long enough to look out of the window – and notice.

Author: K.S. Ford.