The man was always shunned for how he looked, because who’d want to be friends with someone who looked straight from The Nightmare before Christmas?

He wandered up and down the alleys with his umbrella, trying to find shelter from the constant rain. He would look up at the sky and wonder why the rain would never stop. Was the sky also shunning him or perhaps crying for him? He did not know.

He’d walked down the longest alley yet and that’s when he heard it. It was quiet but he heard a pained whimper of an animal.

He hobbled over to the sound and that’s where he saw an older raccoon, one who had clearly lived its life in fear and pain.

He kneeled down next to the raccoon and propped up his umbrella to shelter the animal from the rain.

“You will never see misery again.”

He silently promised the animal.