No one would ever think that an unknown old man, who is drunk and ill, would have an impact in our lives. But in Ian’s case, that’s how it is. In the story we meet Ian, who opens up his house for Michael Phelps. Ian cannot figure out, if Michael is sick or drunk, but invites him inside, until Michaels cap arrives. While walking in, Michael leaves a dark hand print on a bright yellow wall. Reading further in the story, we realize that this print on the wall is a symbol of Michael having an influence on Ian’s life, which is symbolized as the wall. Family is important for all of us, and without family life would be very dark and lonely. We see that in Michael’s life. He hasn’t had contact to his former wife or daughter in many years. (p. 3 ll.74) He knows that the missing contact is his own fault, and we can feel that he is very sad about it. Every little wrong thing he does has a following sorry. He feels that he has to say sorry for everything, so he will not ruin any more relationships with someone.
We are very careful in life, when it comes to hurting the people we love the most. And Michael has. When the taxi driver arrives, he says “I’m sorry mate. I’ve had him before. You’ll have to try someone else” (p.4 ll. 87) Here we are actually told that the taxi driver has experienced Michael like that in the past. That tells us, that Michael has an alcohol problem. As written earlier, he does not have any contact to his family. And we get the feel of he has no friends either. Alcohol has been there for him, instead of his family and friends. Alcohol has been the reason to why he was not been allowed to walk his daughter down the aisle at her wedding. And that is also why the contact between family and friends are broken. “…It’s the alcohol you see” (p.4 ll.120)
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