Inky

Being an unseasonably warm day, I decided to have my lunch outside in the sunshine today.

I was quite enjoying my salad and was deep in thought, when I caught the whiff of cigarette smoke in my nostril. This would usually infuriate me, but I was in quite a good mood so I ignored it and returned to wherever it was my mind had turned to. Then I heard, from the direction of the smoke, what sounded like a pair of lungs being coughed up in the last throes of bronchial pneumonia. I looked up to see what appeared to be a tramp sitting on the next bench. I ignored him for a while until he stood up and approached me.

He asked if I had a mobile phone. He had already seen me browsing on my Blackberry, so I could hardly deny it, and so replied with a hesitant yes. To be fair, he didn’t look like a mugger or a knife wielding phone thief, but I was still reluctant to engage with him. He then sat down next to me and asked if I could phone someone for him. My immediate thought was to make my apologies and leave, or to make the phone call quickly and get the episode over and done with. But then, as he handed me a crumpled scrap of paper with his friend’s misspelt name and phone number (minus STD code, old school) and explained that he was waiting for his friend to pick him up but that the friend was late, a wave of sympathy washed over me. This wasn’t a wretched old, booze-soaked tramp, trying to scam money off me for his next drink. This was a genuinely confused and helpless old man who had just seen better days. He told me his name was Inky and that my lunch looked nice. He asked if I worked locally and if I was enjoying the sunshine. I made that call to his friend and spent a pleasant five minutes in Inky’s company until he was safely on his way.

I reflected later on how sad it is that society has conditioned us to be wary of strangers, or indeed anyone who looks a little worse for wear or somehow different. We drill Stranger Danger into our kids from the day they are born, and are then surprised that they grow up to not trust anyone. I could quite easily have snubbed Inky and left him waiting on that bench not knowing whether or not his friend would turn up. Indeed that was my initial instinct. Others in society would have taunted him or, worse, inflicted physical violence upon him, just for not looking right. 

I’m glad I helped Inky out of his predicament today and, at the risk of sounding a bit Thought For the Day, I hope that as a result I might be a bit less wary and judgemental in similar situations in future.