Thursday, July 14, 2011
Props
As I walked along yesterday, a guy stopped me. He was carrying a two year old. I noticed immediately that the two year old was very cute. She was very well groomed but, had an odd look about her as if she were confused. The man carrying her was about 5” 8’ and maybe 125 pounds. He was a grimy as the child was pristine. He walked right in front of me such that I had to stop or stumble into him. He said, “Sir, I really need 60 cents. Just 60 cents to catch the bus… She is getting’ heavy and I don’t want to get caught in the rain again. (There had been a couple spotty flash showers yesterday that lasted no more than five minutes each.)
Before I could respond with my usual, “sorry,” the man adjusted his body so I could not see his face but instead a full view of the adorable confused looking child. I reached into my pocket without thinking and gave him all of the change there. I believe that it was about $1.50 or so. He thanked me without showing his face and moved onward. Still carrying the child he walked onto a small grocery store’s parking lot. I stopped and watched as he approached three other people getting out of their cars with the same tired “sixty cent” line. I’ve been duped as they say in the movies. The man had apparently borrowed the child from perhaps a relative as a prop. They were too different in their presentations to be related. “Granma, let me take little Mary for a walk…
I shared the story with a friend when I got home who thought me surprisingly gullible. He thought that I should have seen that one coming. I did not see it coming because I guess I am not as cynical as the world might believe of me, even though the same thing did happen to me about ten years ago in Rochester. What can I say? Small children and puppies still make me gush. Besides, I have always thought that we must do the right thing. If the right thing is not received well, then that is on the soul of the receiver, if he/she has one. We live in a society and it is our responsibility to recognize that we are not alone but, at the same time we do have to protect ourselves which is why I did not take my wallet out.
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