A good soul, passing through

He Loves New York, and It Loves Him Right Back

The Times: Yuki Endo was just 10 years old when the city first took hold of him. His life in New York might have been a lonely one after his mother moved him here from Japan in early 1996. He was born with a rare chromosome disorder that left him disabled and makes it hard for him to speak clearly.

But in the decade since, the city has nurtured Yuki in small, graceful ways and become his best friend. Through a quirky combination of luck and his own bottomless curiosity, he has formed a kind of extended family out of the firefighters, doormen, security guards, teachers, librarians and shopkeepers he meets on his daily explorations.

He is a landlocked Huckleberry Finn, restlessly caught up with the mystery and minutiae of New York, at least until 7 p.m., when his mother wants him home. He writes poetry about the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and memorizes train conductors' announcements. He entertains firefighters by singing to them in their firehouses, unaccompanied by music, because he likes to. His first home is an Upper East Side apartment; his second is the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He has spent so many afternoons inside the Met that the security guards call out his name when they see him. He tells them what subway lines to avoid because of weekend service changes, which he monitors religiously.

"I want to make sure they won't be late to the museum," explained Yuki, now 20.

This is definitely one of my favorite New York Times articles of 2005. It's got all the hallmarks of what makes the paper great--it's interestingly well-written, it looks at something seemingly small slant, it makes you sad/happy, you appreciate it in different ways depending on whether you live in New York (wow, I never knew) or not (boy, what a city), there's no sense of strings being pulled, you've never seen it anywhere else before, you wonder how the Times found this guy, you forward it to your friends, you find yourself giving it a new headline, you shake your head after reading it and want to go back and read all the back issues of the newspaper you've missed.

And who knows, maybe Endo will one day write for the Times, just as he's written for Wordsmiths: An Anthology of Writing by Teens on the Web.

Don't give up!
When you come to something difficult
Never give up
Just do it or just skip and come back when you have time

Photo of Endo Yuki by Robert Caplin for the New York Times.