On any corner...

I saw four teenagers – well, they didn’t look older than teenagers – panhandling on a street corner the other day. Scattered around on the ground were guitars and skateboards, back packs and bed rolls; all their earthly goods. One of the two girls - the designated panhandler for that corner – stood with a cardboard sign that read “Hunger sucks.”

As I waited for the light to change, watching this little group, the two boys and the other girl came to some kind of decision and the boys gathered up their belongings and walked away. For good? To find another corner to work? I don’t know.

So many questions that I would never know the answer to. Who were these children? Where did they come from? Did they know where they were headed? Did they know what was ahead of them? The “Hunger Sucks” sign suggested they were catching on. What tear in the family fabric led them to believe that standing on the street corner was preferable to what they left at home. Was this a rock band without a gig? Were the guys manipulating the girls? Were the girls manipulating the guys?  What would it be like to sit down with them and hear their stories? Was there anything I could do besides drive on?

That of course is what I did. The light changed and I drove on. When I came back by that intersection a couple of hours later there was no trace of any of them. But they have stuck in my mind for several days now. Panhandlers are an every-corner occurrence in Austin. What was it about these four that nags at me?  Their youth? Their seeming vulnerability? Under what circumstances could those have been my children? Were the parents looking desperately for them, or was it good riddance?

I pass haggard, unkempt weary souls every day in this town and truthfully think little of it. I wonder how long it will be before those four are haggard, unkempt and weary souls.