Recently I was
approached by a young man in the street. I am not sure how old he was but he
only had one tooth in his bottom jaw and his clothes and skin were grimy as if he
slept somewhere near exhaust fumes. Yet his hair was short and he was
relatively clean-shaven.
He said, ‘I know you think I’m a tramp …
I am a tramp compared to you but thank you for not looking down on me. Thank
you for not giving me that look.
I started to say, ‘I didn’t say you were
…’
He repeated, ‘Thank you for not looking
down on me.’
I was already
beginning to feel that this scenario had the potential of becoming some kind of
Leeds Groundhog Day so I said, ‘Okay so what do you want?’ My tone was not
unfriendly but it did indicate that as he had stopped me I knew that it was
because he wanted something so why didn’t we get on with it.
At this point
I noticed that he had lovely eyes. It was city dark so it was difficult to see
the colour, it was more of the shape and curve. And his cheeks were hollow. If
he still had teeth and if was wearing clean clothes he would have been as
noticeably attractive as Johnny Depp in the after shave poster that littered
the city’s bus stops and hoardings on my walk back to the hotel.
He said, ‘Ten pence, a penny,
whatever you think.’
As I took out my purse I said, ‘You
won’t get far with ten pence.’
I pulled out a
five-pound note. He stood there for a few seconds as I waved the note at him urging
him to take the money then he burst into tears. Those lovely sad eyes filled to
the brim and ran down his cheeks. He swung around to indicate the people sitting on the café terrace behind us, ‘They will think I’ve accosted you, made you give me the
money. I didn’t, did I? I didn’t make you. Did I?’
‘No, you didn’t. I offered it to you
of my own free will now please take it.’
He took the
money but now he was sobbing. I lamely said, ‘Go and get yourself a drink or
something’ and he began again saying that he was a tramp.
Now I had got rid of
the money I wanted to leave. To simply walk away. Or walk away simply.
I find it
problematic to step over people in the street who seem to live on a doorstep
with a duvet and a dog for company. People that mutter can you spare some
change in an inaudible voice because they know if they speak any louder they
will still not be heard.
