This morning, Shawn and Donna left the apartment at about 8:00. I locked the door and then started ironing my clothes for work. About ten seconds later, Shawn called and told me that there was a bum sleeping in the small area between our front door and outer door. I asked if she wanted me to come down and escort him out, but she declined and delicately stepped around his sleeping form.
As I got ready over the course of the next half hour, I hoped that the bum would be gone when I left for work. In case he hadn’t left, I prepared myself for the various scenarios that might occur when I found him there. I decided that I would first ask him to leave nicely, saying something along the lines of, “Sorry friend, you can’t sleep here.” If that didn’t work, then I’d try a rougher approach, “Let’s go, get up, get out of here!” And then, if that didn’t persuade him, a little manual encouragement would be my technique of choice.
When I trudged down the stairs at 8:30, the bum was leaning against our mailboxes, and when I looked through the door at him, he looked away, and I saw that he was afraid. He was about my brother’s age, maybe a bit younger, and for some reason, that disarmed me. I did not say anything that I thought I would say. Instead, I said, “How are you?” and he said, “Okay.”
I left him there in the space between doors because it was cold outside, because there was snow in the forecast, and because seeing a kid instead of an adult really took the fight right out of me.
I remember that sleepng kid in the vestibule.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the memory.
Loved it of course.
Donna