A Couple Bucks

On a very brisk and damp Sunday morning, I walked down Lehigh Avenue in hopes of seeing something intriguing. I had no plan for the day. I decided to only take a walk and hope something would come to me. Although it was too chilly for my liking, the still air was a nice change of pace. Those harsh winds we've been facing the last few days were gone, but the cold still tingled my nose. Just as I buried my face into my tightly wrapped scarf, I noticed a lumpy grey blanket (which once looked to be a much lighter color) against a building at the corner of Fairhill and Lehigh Streets. Inside, bundled up was a man. He had a cardboard sign asking for some form of help. My first instinct was that he needed it, and he didn't need the sign to tell people. As this is a typical sight in our city, I might have just ignored the man rolled up in his comforter. I approached him with a few stray one dollar bills. His expression was not of thanks, confusion or happiness. I held the money in front of him for a few seconds and when I realized he wouldn't take it from me; I dropped it next to him. He looked at me with blank and soulless eyes; then he glanced down at the rolled up ones. "Buy yourself something warm. A coffee, hot chocolate, whatever you like," I said to him with a warm smile. His only reaction was to scrape the money from the street and abandon his temporary bed, and me. I didn't follow him as he left me wondering what he thought of my random gesture.

Kelly Wilson, Team 5, Fairhill