The other day I was doing some shopping and a homeless man, who was untidy and spent most of the time talking to no one, walked toward a group of us at the checkout stand. I overheard him say to the man in front of me, “I don’t want to steal from this store... would you buy me some food?”

The man in front of me pretended not to hear him; it was as if he were not there. I waited patiently for my turn to be questioned, but it never came. So I asked him, “Can I buy you something to eat?” He gladly accepted. The man got a bag and began putting cupcakes in the bag. As my things were being rung up I watched the man put the cupcakes into the bag; 1, 2, 3... He finally stopped and I asked him how many he had got and he replied 6.

The cashier looked at me in surprise and then added them to my order. After I was through, the man was walking around the store; he said he wanted something to drink, too. The cashier seemed to be keeping a close eye on him. I admit I was too, as I didn’t want him to steal anything either! I told the cashier that if he got a drink I’d just pay for it.

In the end, we both ended up leaving the store, but he stood right outside holding the cupcakes and talking to himself. Or maybe he was talking with someone who he thought was there.

This man’s circumstances (处境) made me sad. How many of our homeless also suffer from a mental illness? Maybe that’s even what led him to be homeless. I also thought about the watchful eye the cashier and I kept over him. Maybe for different reasons, I still hope to run into him again someday, and maybe we can sit down and have lunch together.

When I was 8 years old, I decided to run away from home after a quarrel with my mother. With my suitcase(行李箱) packed and some sandwiches in a bag, I started for the front door.

My mom asked where I was going. “I’m leaving home,” I said.

“What’s that you’re carrying?” she asked.

“Some clothes and food,” I replied.

“If you want to run away, that’s all right,” she said. “But you came into this home without anything and you can leave the same way.”

I threw my suitcase and sandwiches on the floor and started for the door again.

“Wait a minute,” Mom said. “You didn’t have any clothes on when you arrived, and I want them back.”

This infuriated me. I tore my clothes off — shoes, socks, underwear and all — and shouted, “Can I go now?”

“Yes,” my mom answered, “but once you close that door, don’t expect to come back.”

I was so angry that I shut the door forcefully and stepped out of my home. Then I noticed down the street two neighbor girls walking toward our house. I was so shy that I saw the big spruce (云杉) tree in our yard and jumped under the low-hanging branches (树枝). A pile of dried-up brown needles (针状物) were beneath the tree, and you can’t imagine the pain those sharp needles caused to my body.

After I was sure the girls had passed by, I ran to the front door and knocked at it loudly.

“It’s Billy! Let me in!”

The voice behind the door answered, “Billy doesn’t live here anymore. He ran away from home.”

Looking behind me to see if anyone else was coming down the street, I said, “Mom! I’m sorry. I’m still your son. Let me in!”

The door opened and Mom’s smiling face appeared. “Did you change your mind about running away?” she asked.

“What’s for supper?” I smiled back.

One stride at a time, Tom Panek and his guide dog, Gus, inch closer to their goal. The two have been training in local parks for more than three years with the hopes of competing in an official long­distance race. It’s never been done before. “I’ve been running my whole life. I ran on my cross­country team in high school, and I ran as a young adult,” Panek said. He lost his sight 25 years ago. “When I lost my sight I was too scared to run,” Panek said.

As he adjusted to his blindness, he began running with a human guide, but it wasn’t the same. “Although many people run with running clubs, at the end of the day you’re running your own race. And when you’re tied to another person, it’s no longer your own race. The independence isn’t quite there,” Panek said.

Two years ago, Panek became the CEO of Guiding Eyes for the Blind. The idea of a running guide program was first suggested by Richard Hunter, who was blind and looking to get back in to running.

“Richard shouted out, ‘I’m really curious, have you ever trained a guide dog to run？’ And I said, ‘I don’t know. It hasn’t been done,’” Panek said.

A few months and intense training sessions later, the running guide program was born. Panek and a small team helped train Klinger, a German shepherd, to aid Hunter with running.

He formed a team of experts to train a small group of dogs to run long distances. The dogs begin their training at 18 months old. It’s an exclusive club. Out of 165 graduate dogs, only about 12 are considered race ready.

The team’s final test would be a five­mile race through New York’s Central Park just one week before the New York City Marathon. It was Panek’s and Gus’s first competitive race. Before the race, Panek was overcome with emotion, wiping away his tears of appreciation to the dog who gave him his independence back.

“And crossing that finish line, you know it was a momentous (关键的) occasion for me,” Panek said.