Homeless Guy
Posted on August 16, 2003 by Ching under Life, School.
With school starting next week I have a long list of things that I will miss: sleeping in and having Brian drive me to work and pick me up, just to name a couple. I love it when Brian picks me up even though I have to wait a few minutes for him to arrive at my work (we both get off at 11 pm but he has to wait for all of his people to get off the phone and finish his end of day stuff and drive from the North side of town where T-Mobile is located to downtown Wichita). I usually have a pretty uneventful wait — just the two of us, talking to each other via our cellphones until he arrives to whisk me away. Thursday night, however, was more exciting than usual.
I looked in the alley where Brian normally comes from and told him that they are still doing construction but this time the entire alley is blocked off so he will have to go around and take Main Street instead at which point I noticed this drunk man walking in my direction. Instictively I walked back to the well-lit front entry. I tried to be as inconspicuous as possible but the man still found me and asked for directions (I am the last person you’d want directions from, trust me). He wanted to know how to get to Broadway. I always get turned around so I started asking Brian who was on the phone with me the whole time through my handsfree/headset but everytime I would say something to Brian the drunk man would start talking to me again. I can’t really fault him for it for even sober people get taken aback when you are seemingly talking to think air because they do not see any kind of phone held next to your ear. He was drunk so he probably didn’t realize I was on the phone.
I couldn’t get decent directions because he would keep interrupting me everytime I’d ask so I just told him to keep going in the direction that he was already going (he was walking along First Street, coming from Main towards Market). Our entry faces South so this would actually be correct. What I didn’t understand was he said he wanted to go downtown but he was already downtown. He mentioned something about looking for McDonald’s but I really couldn’t understand because his speech was slurred. I wished that I could’ve given him better directions but I was actually relieved to see him walking away.
Broadway kind of has a bad reputation, specially as you go further North. The street is riddled with street-walkers and seedy motels. Brian immediately assumed that the drunk man was looking for a hooker. “No, baby!” I told him, “He’s looking for a McDonalds.” Brian goes, “He has a long walk ahead of him then.” I didn’t realize this then but Brian is right. When he gets to Broadway, he has to walk another four blocks South in order to get there.
As we started driving home, we saw him still walking along First Street. He had gone past Broadway and was well on his way to Old Town. I almost made Brian stop so we could give him a ride to McDonald’s. Brian was like, “No! You gave him directions. That’s your good deed for the day.” He said “Look,” pointing to the police car driving behind us, “they’re not even stopping!” But still I felt guilty for not being able to give him better directions. Brian’s point was, what are the chances that he would have even understood the better directions? “It’s not YOUR fault that he is too drunk to read the BIG green street sign!”
“But baby, you don’t understand! What if I run into him again? He might try to kill me for giving him such horrible directions!” Brian’s like, “That’s why I tell you to stay inside the building while you wait for me! I hate it when you stand outside! It makes me worry!” To this I always insist that it’s fine because the entry is very well lit. Seriously though, I feel really bad that he missed Broadway.
You know what the sad part is? I’ve been working downtown for over a year, I was completely sober and yet I didn’t know which direction Broadway would be! It’s terrible!
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