AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS YEAR, I received an unexpected payment for something I'd written. Not wanting to just fritter it away, I'd been sitting on the $100 check for weeks, thinking about how best to spend the money.
Finally I went to the bank to cash the check. As I sat in my car in the drive-through lane, waiting for the teller to give me the envelope with the cash, I saw a couple across the street at a gas station. They were pushing a grocery cart full of old junk, clothes, and plastic bags. The man and woman were wearing layers of old coats, hats, and clumpy boots, and they looked pretty down and out. As I pulled out of the bank parking lot, I had to drive around them as they began to walk onto the ramp to the highway. It was a bitter cold day, and I felt for them.
I live in a rural town in mid-coast Maine, and we don't have many conspicuously homeless folks here, like in a big city. So this scene was unusual, and I remember thinking that the couple could probably do with a little extra help.
