Let me paint a picture for you.

Around the corner from your home, there is a man who sits in a lawn chair next to the side of the road, tanning himself.  He’s a large man with skin the color of a charred orange peel, and curly white hair that covers every inch of his body but the top of his head.  A pair of expensive sunglasses shade his eyes, and the sparse amount of clothing he wears covers little else. In one hand he holds a lit cigarette, and in the other a comically large cigar.  He takes intermittent puffs of each as he leans back and lets the sun continue to fry his skin into the equivalent of a pork rind. You can only guess what type of music is playing through the ear buds crammed into his sweaty ears.

You see him relaxing there in the hot sun for about an hour every day.  He’s been maliciously dubbed The Cancer Man by your best friend in some bizarre nod to The X-files character.  However, the man seems friendly enough whenever you walk by, giving a cordial smile of stained teeth and a raspy “Good afternoon.”

Your writing prompt, should you choose to accept it, is to tell a story about this man and why he does this daily ritual.

I look forward to seeing any ideas or stories below.

– DC