A Man Walked Into A Bar...

Needy people. We all know them. Some of us are them. They come in all shapes and sizes, ask different questions, and are drawn to different people. The one constant between them is that they all annoy the people who have to deal with them. It's not their fault, of course; it's just who they are. Unfortunately, the cause doesn't change the effect, and we still have to put up with them.

Earlier this semester, I was waiting for the bus to come. I was done with all my classes, and in a generally pleasant mood. Listening to my iPod (of course), I wasn't paying tons of attention to everyone around me. A man walks into the bus stop. He goes up to the bartender and asks for a drink. The bartender gives him the drink. The man asks for a napkin. The bartender gives him a napkin. The man asks when lunch is served. The bartender tells him they don't serve lunch. The man asks if the bartender can save his seat. The bartender says no. So it goes. He had a worried sort of expression on his face. He's an older, middle-aged white man, balding with a few whisps of white hair on the sides. He wore an Indian's sweatshirt and faded, ratty, have-been-in-your-wardrobe-since-high-school jeans. He looked at me, but I thought nothing of it, since I was the only other person there at the time.

I saw his lips move. He had asked me something. I took out one earbud, and politely asked "sorry, what?" He wanted to know which way the bus would be going. The way that buses work is that you wait at the bus stop on the side of the street that traffic usually goes. The Healthline is somewhat harder to distinguish downtown, so they put signs on each stop so that people know if the bus is going east or west when they get on. I was utterly confused at this question, because all he had to do was read a sign, or look at the road to know the answer. Not knowing better, I asked him to repeat himself. He must have had an opinion of my intelligence similar to that which I had of his. I told him it was going east. This didn't seem to help him, so I pointed "that way." He thanked me and I hit play.

I pretty much ignored him the rest of the wait, but he kept talking, and I was still the only one there. Over my music, I heard something about his owing his landlord $20, and he didn't know how he was going to pay it back. I felt bad for the man, in the fullest sense of the word pity. The whole time, he seemed as if he was about to start crying. But, there was nothing I could do, so nothing I did.