You Should Have Seen

An entry for The Friday Challenge

I was working late, again. Eating left over pizza for dinner, it was cold but I didn’t mind. There is something satisfying about cold pizza. It was already dark outside and most of the afternoon rush had dispersed. By that time of the night there aren’t too many people walking the streets below my office.

The fluro’s from the convenience store across the street flickered making the street, which during the day looks respectable, look decrepit and run down. Like something out of a low budget horror film. Two teenagers stood out the front smoking; both of them were laughing and pointing to something I couldn’t quite see. I think it was my desire to be young forever but I wanted see what they were laughing at. I got up from my desk and walked over to another office to a get a better view of the street.

It was a homeless man digging around in a bin. I sighed and I my shoulders sunk slightly; I always forget there are reasons behind why we grow up, one of them being so that we don’t make fun of those less fortunate than us. I looked at him for a short time wondering what had happened to him. Did he have a family? Friends? Were there underlying issues that could have been treated? I heard mental health is usually a problem with the homeless.

Just as I was turning I noticed something slightly out of place with the homeless man. His shoes were spotless. Brand new Nike sneakers, the kind of Nike sneakers I pestered my mum for me when I was growing up. Homeless people don’t often have brand new sneakers. I stood staring at him for a while longer. I began to notice other things about him that were slightly off.

His hair had blonde streaks in it. I’m no expert on the homeless, but I am fairly sure they don’t see hair stylists. The dirt on his face also looked odd. Like, it was perfect dirt. Well placed. Paint even?

Was this guy a fake?

It then became clear that this whole time he hadn’t actually been looking into the bin he was supposedly rummaging through. He was looking across the street to my building; to the level below me, the ground level. He froze.

Stared straight ahead.

He’d seen something.

Then, like startled rabbit he was off. Running towards my building, my heart stopped just for a moment. Surely he wasn’t coming in here. There was nothing in there worthwhile. I pressed my head against the glass in a vain attempt to see where he had gone. But I couldn’t. I stepped back from the window and looked at the cold pizza in my hand. At least I knew where that would be going.

I walked back to my desk and sat down looking out onto the street again. The teenagers were gone. I sighed and took a bite of my pizza. Then I heard a sound.

There was someone at the door...