As the old man approached my friends and me, we noticed something odd about him. He was barefoot, walking along the streets of Houston in the blistering, hot sun. We had never noticed him in our neighborhood before, so we thought it was kind of weird. My friend, Kimberly, asked him what he was doing in this part of Houston and why wasn't he wearing any shoes. He replied, "I have no shoes. I have no money. I have nothing except my bicycle and belongings that are in my basket. I came to this neighborhood in hope of someone giving me food or water." Kimberly and I looked at each other in wonder.
This had been the first time someone had ever came up to us, asking for things. We told him that we had no money and that food wasn't available at the moment. I decided to dig through my purse, just to see if I might have a few change, and found a flashlight. I asked the man if this would be helpful to him, and he kindly took it. He said "thank you," and went on his way. I looked at Kimberly, then looked back at the man and said "That was weird, don't you think?" She said "Yes," and we continued walking.
As we were walking, passing parks, with beautiful trees and flowers, we ran in to the man once again. He was talking gibberish, not making any sense at all. We stopped and watched him for about five minutes until we decided to ask if anything was wrong. He told us that nothing was wrong, that he was trying to get down to the market. Anyone in town could have smelled the alcohol on his breath. Kimberly and I figured out that all he wanted was money to buy alcohol and cigarettes. We called the police on him, knowing that he had taken money and other things from people too. After that incident, neither one of us ever gave anything to anyone that we did not know.
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