It had been a long day at work. The big annual report was coming up next week, so Sarah's bosses had no shortage of documents for her to evaluate and powerpoint slides for her to prepare. Everyone wanted something and no one had any time to wait. Just one more day and she would be done for the week. She was so looking forward to the weekend.
Sarah let out a deep, refreshing sigh as she walked down the street stocking-footed. Her feet hurt from walking in her heels so she had taken them off. She really needed to start bringing walking shoes to work as she had seen others doing.
As she was thinking about this, she must have leaned to the side or something because the weight in her over-sized purse shifted, catching her off balance, and causing her to drop a shoe. "That was dumb," she thought as she stopped walking and bent down to pick up her shoe. "I should just put these in my bag. I think there's room."
She swung her purse around, plopping it on the sidewalk, and happened to glance up as she was unzipping it and notice a gray-haired man with a scraggly beard, hints of dirt on his face, longing green eyes, and a cardboard sign sitting up against the wall of a building. He looked at her expectantly.
"Oh no," Sarah quickly said, "I'm sorry, I was just..." She stuffed one of her shoes into the bag. "I'm sorry," she said again, turning a little red and putting her other shoe in the bag. It fit, but just barely. She stared down at the bag as she forced the zipper close and then glanced up once more as she stood back up. "Sorry," she said a third time, and hurried on awkwardly down the street.
As her pulse calmed from the shock of seeing homeless man sitting right there, she realized that he hadn't seemed like many of the others she saw downtown. He hadn't said anything to her, had just stared at her. It had made her uncomfortable, but maybe that was the point. Maybe she should have at least stopped to talk to him, to say more than "Sorry". What had his sign said? Something about the homeless shelter. Maybe he wasn't even homeless and was just trying to make a point. If he was homeless, he sure wan't being very obtrusive about it. She wondered what his story was, and, for a split second, considered going back to ask.
But that was silly. She had to get home and make dinner for Paul. Tomorrow was his big night and she had wanted to make him his favorite dishes tonight and she was already running behind. Besides, the homeless man would surely be there again tomorrow. Where else was he going to go?
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