Wednesday 11 November, after
an exhaustive work day, I signed off at 7:45 pm. I finished the third dinner at
the same fast food restaurant this week and quickly headed to the bus stop,
hoping to get home before 9:30 pm.
As I dragged myself along with my mind miles away, I nearly tumbled onto an old man near a minibus stop. I stepped aside reflexively and stopped to ponder momentarily. The man, in his 70s, sat on the sidewalk with his legs apart and stared vacantly at the road. He was nearly bald with a thin layer of white hair on the side of his head. I could see only 2 or 3 teeth from his half opening mouth. His worn light blue towel shirt looked fairly clean under the blue quilted nylon jacket but his grey cotton tracksuit bottoms would need some washing. His tanned feet were chapped and silvery under the fluorescent lights. His nails were neatly contoured by black lines at the opening tip of his blue plastic slippers.
