Carlos shifted his weight quietly from one foot to the other. Beside him sat a plain white stone bench that felt cold beneath his fingertips. He absentmindedly traced one of the armrests while staring out at the quiet street ahead of him.

Then something nearby caught his attention.

The street lamp beside the bench had begun blinking oddly.

At first, Carlos thought little of it. Just an electrical problem maybe. But after watching it for a few moments, he found himself growing quietly curious.

Without fully thinking, he reached out telepathically toward it.

“Are you ok?” he communicated wordlessly.

The lamp continued flickering erratically.

For a moment, Carlos wondered if it really was nothing more than an ordinary malfunctioning street lamp.

Still, something deep down urged him not to stop.

A dog wandered down the sidewalk sniffing aimlessly along the curb before eventually stopping beside the lamp. Without hesitation, it lifted its leg and began urinating against the base of the post.

Something about this deeply saddened Carlos.

Carlos looked up at the flickering light for another moment.

Then quietly, almost instinctively, he said aloud:

“I’ll sit with you.”

He lowered himself onto the cold stone bench beside the lamp.

For a few more moments the light continued blinking unevenly overhead.

Then gradually, almost gently, the flickering slowed.

The street lamp blinked once more in a softer rhythm that felt unmistakably responsive somehow, and Carlos quietly understood that he had done the right thing.