The Couple

I watched as the couple slowly walked through the street pushing their shopping cart filled with bottles and every type of item they could find that they deemed to be as valuable. Both of them were gone, they were on a high that was on a plane or dimension completely disassociated with earth or reality all together. But they were a couple and had stuck together. For how long they had been together only they knew. I often thought about the homeless population and how they lived and survived on the dangerous streets and on the cold winter nights. I always came back to the fact that they were once a baby like me but then at some point his or her life it went sideways either because they lost a job or a business or a marriage. Then for whatever reason they could never get it back on track and they slipped further and further through the cracks of society until they reached rock bottom. Some of the homeless population are able to get back on track and live better lives but for many when substance abuse came into play it was a downward spiral that couldn't be stopped. I once asked a politician about the frightening spike in homeless population and drug addiction in our city and he told me that there is help but you have to want to be helped. He also said that some homeless people just want to exist the way they are and not go back to the society that put them on the streets. 

​But let's get back to the couple I was watching. They would walk, then stop and talk to each other for a few minutes and then start walking again. But as they walked their argument started to become more and more heated. The voice of the woman reached a high pitched scream that could be heard for blocks. He then raised his voice in defense and soon they were involved in a hard core screaming match that went on for at least five minutes.

The cops pulled over and tried to calm the storm but the couple kept screaming at each other. Gradually the police got them under control. A couple of minutes later when things appeared to have calmed down the cops left. Within a minute of the police driving away the couple was screaming at each other again. I lit up a smoke and decided to watch a little longer. Before I knew it it was almost dark. 

The couple still argued but not as loudly. I felt that they knew I was watching as they both turned my way a couple of times. Just as I was going to go he grabbed her and started slapping her repeatedly and threw her to the ground near a bush. There was nobody else around and I was only about one hundred feet away from them so I ran to her rescue. Then as soon as I tried to break up the fight she kicked me in the balls and I keeled over wretching out acid through my mouth. While I was on the ground he started to pummel me with his boots and she tried to club me with a tire iron she had retrieved from her shopping cart. Then another two men came out of the bush and stole my wallet, watch, shoes, clothes, sunglasses and anything I had of value. 

I had been conned by the two, they weren't homeless at all. She got me to come over and then they beat me and rolled me for my valuables. The four of them laughed as I laid in the bush with nothing but my underwear on.