"Beggar" by Anonymous

The old lady looked horrible. She hadn’t taken a shower in over a year. Her hair was a mess. It was falling all over her face and looked dried up. Her cloths were old and ripped. The smell of rotten trash surrounded her. You could see bags under her eyes. She was sitting beside a wall holding a cup in her hand begging people for money as the walked by.

            “Spare some change? Please sir spare some change?”

            “Get off me you old hag. Touch me again and I will call the cops.”

            “Please, please sir I have nothing, just some change anything will do.”

The man looked at her then stared intently at her face for a while, then he bent down to look her in the eye.

            “You know people like you make me sick. Beggars bah. They should all just die. They wouldn’t be here if they just worked harder or paid attention or probably in your case, laid off the drugs.”

The woman was silent now. Not even looking the man in the face only at the ground.

            “People like me are the only people that should be alive. We work hard and paid attention. That’s why I actually have a job and a home. What’s your story huh? Probably the most popular girl in school? Or maybe you were the whore everyone came to, to try and get lucky with? You probably fell in love with some guy in high school, and ran away with him. Turned out you didn’t know him like you thought you did? I’m guessing he was a pimp and turned you into his “girl”. How many people did you sleep with huh?

 The man waited to see if she would answer. She never did.

            “I’m guessing you probably did drugs too? I wouldn’t know of course I’ve never done drugs. So I’m guessing that you eventually ran away and tried to go back to your normal life and that didn’t work out so here you are now. Just some lowlife beggar that can’t hold a job. Your pathetic, here take this.

The man threw a bunch of coins at the old lady and proceeded to walk away.

            “Thank you for your generosity sir.”

After a while the old lady did not speak, she just collected her coins and counted them. $2.13 she counted. She smiled looking at the coins.

            Time eventually passed and it had gotten dark. The old lady got up and started walking down the path until she came up upon a rickety building grey building. She went up the steps and went into the house.

            “Maria, how did it go?” A woman said to her

            The old lady said nothing to her, only give her the coins

The woman began to count the coins.

            “$2.13, I’ll make sure it all goes towards Laura.”

The old lady only nodded at the women then began to walk towards the door.

            “Maria,” the woman said. The old lady turned around to look at her. “ You know if I was your daughter I would be very proud of you. You should too. What you’re doing out there is a lot to put up with and it’s all so your girl gets to live a good life. You should be proud.”

The old lady said nothing just stared at the woman for a while.

            “Please take care of Laura,” the old lady said. She then opened the door and walked out.

            “Promise,” the woman said to herself.

The old lady stood in front of the building for a while. Then started walking back up the path to her spot. When she got there she sat down and began to beg.

            “Spare some change?”