Moonlight Magic

Sarah has worked for The Homeless charity for about two years now after finishing a degree in phycology at university. Ever since being a little girl she has had a fascination with people that lived on the street. As she grew up she would fantasize about living away from society in a utopian world free from the almost overwhelming control of everyday living and the rat-race.

It was only when she got the job with the charity did it hit home hard that living on the street was nothing to romanticize about. It was a horrible, dangerous, precarious existence not knowing where your next meal was coming from…not only from one day to the next but from one hour to the next. She loved meeting the huge variety of different characters that occupied the back allies and streets in her home town. Early on, not long after joining the charity, she nearly came a cropper when she tried to introduce herself to one of the homeless men she found one evening. He was huddled under a pile of cardboard boxes in an alcove between two buildings down a rather dingy back lane. She had been walking around the town making herself known to all the unfortunate down and outs she could find, when she encountered a lady pushing a shopping trolley full of plastic bags. She was dressed in an extremely dirty, long black ball gown that dragged along the ground as she walked, with a dark green anorak over the top to keep her warm. On her head she had a crumpled cowboy hat with masses of long bushy grey hair poking out from underneath. Sarah introduced herself and asked about the pile of cardboard boxes she’d seen earlier down a back lane round the corner.

“Ooh…I’d give that old fart that lives there a wide berth if I were you Sarah.” Warned the old lady. “He’sh a grumpy old sod. He never mixes with ush.”

“Thank you…errr…I don’t know your name?” Replied Sarah.

“Sharah. Jush like you me-love.” Replied the lady. She made a shh…sound when she spoke because she only had one large tooth on her top row where you would normally have a full set of teeth. She had no teeth at all on the bottom row.

“That’s wonderful Sarah.” Said Sarah with the full set of teeth. “I’ll never forget your name.”

The old lady began to laugh with a high pitched cackle, just like you’d expect a witch in a movie to sound. She couldn’t have sounded more like a witch if she’s tried. Sarah looked at her straight faced but soon began to laugh along with her as the sound of her cackling became infectious.

“So. Do you know anything about the man round the corner?” Asked Sarah hoping for some more information before going over to see him.

“Nope. He’sh a weirdo. I do know he’sh been on the shtreet for yearsh. I’s seen ’im about for agesh.”

“Ok Sarah. Well it’s been lovely to meet you…and you’re trolley. Be careful. And don’t forget to come and see me at the soup kitchen every Tuesday if there’s anything I can do for you.”

The old lady nodded and dashed across the busy main road before Sarah could say anymore, with her cowboy hat flying off only staying around her neck by the length of hairy string holding it in place.

Sarah waved goodbye and gave her shoulders a shrug in preparation for her last meeting of the day. The so-called weirdo round the corner.

It suddenly struck her that most people had business meetings in cosy rooms in offices, or hotel rooms…but she had meetings in the street, or the hospital, or just about any place but an office. A smile crept across her face as she walked and thought…that’s what makes my job so good. It’s so different.

It only took a few minutes for Sarah to walk the few hundred yards from the main road to a back street that ran almost parallel with it. She could see a pile of cardboard that could easily be mistaken for just a pile of old rubbish but Sarah knew it was where the supposedly grumpy old man sheltered. As she approached the four feet high mound of cardboard, she felt butterflies in her stomach and stopped for a second to relax as she could feel herself tensing up. Stop it. She said to herself. You’ve not even met this man yet. For all I know he might be the nicest man on the planet. She was always one for looking on the bright side of things.

“Hello…Hello…Is there anyone in there?” She said calmly and quietly bending over slightly to see if she could see a way into the stack of boxes.

There was no reply and there wasn’t a sound coming from the mound of cardboard so she tried again.

“Hello. I’m from The Homeless charity.” She said a bit louder this time. The boxes suddenly shivered. “Hello. I know you’re in there.”

Suddenly a man leapt out from under the boxes roaring like a lion and thumping into Sarah. He was a big man, about six feet tall, dressed in a full length heavy black coat with long straggly greasy grey hair and a huge bushy grey beard. His impact on five-foot-one Sarah sent her flying backwards so she landed with a thump in a heap on the pavement. He took two huge strides towards where she laying on her back and landed with both his boot-covered-feet either side of her body. He bent over ninety degrees so his smelly grey beard and dirty, wrinkly face was only a few inches away from hers. He roared again and again at her and then shoved a dull grey kitchen knife only an inch or so away from her eye.

“STAY…AWAY…FROM…ME.” He yelled standing upright with a start, and without taking a second look at Sarah he turned and dived head first back into his pile of heavily crumpled boxes disappearing from sight.

She lay on her back motionless looking up into the dull, grey sky as a wave of emotion…fear…swept across her mind and she burst into tears.

What was she doing? Wandering around town…at dusk…peering into piles of cardboard boxes not knowing who or what was inside ready to jump out and…well…hurt her…or even worse kill. She began to sob and lifted her hands up to cover her face as she lay there on the uneven pavement trying to compose herself enough to stand up. Where were the people? Where was everyone? Then she remembered. She had wandered off the main road and this was a much quieter back street.

She pulled herself to her feet and stared at the pile of cardboard boxes stacked against the wall. Her immediate reaction was that she needed to report this, because although he hadn’t physically hurt her, maybe his next encounter with someone else may not end the way this one had and he might hurt someone…or worse.

He had shocked her so much she really didn’t want to go to all the hassle of going to a police station to report this right now so she decided she would phone it in when she got home…after all…she had had enough for today and all she wanted to do now was go home and soak in a bath to wash off the smell of the street…and his stinky breath.