Homeless Man

I got off the bus at the new Redmond Transit Center, and started walking home. As I was going, I noticed a guy standing on the sidewalk, but I didn't pay him much mind and went on past. As I got about 10 feet past him, he said "Sir? Can I ask you something?" So I turned back and looked at him, and he said, "I'm sorry, I've been up and down the road between here and Fred Meyer two times now and... well, I'm homeless. I live over there under the bridge. And I don't even have enough to buy a cup of coffee." I felt bad for the guy, but I had to tell him the truth, which was that I wasn't carrying any money on me at all. I told him I was sorry, and he kinda sighed and said "That's okay. I've heard the same thing all day." Well, it's not like trying to lay on a guilt trip is going to suddenly make money magically appear in my wallet to give him that I didn't already have, but okay. I turned and started to walk off, and then noticed that he was following me. I started to get weirded out a bit, but after a couple dozen feet or so, he simply asked me what time it was, which I told him, and then stopped following me after that. The last thing I heard him say was him mumbling to himself about how tired he was.

Normally, I don't deal with panhandlers as a general rule, but something about this particular guy just kinda struck me. If I'd actually had some money on me, I probably would have given it to him in this case. As for the guilt trip thing, I think that was less something intentional on his part and just that he was genuinely distressed, or at least seemed to be. Sure, if I'd given him some money, he'd have probably just gone off and bought some booze or something, but still...