Heard on the Curb

Just a quick anecdote from yesterday--I was downtown, walking eastbound on Jackson just past the river, when one of those earnest young people soliciting for a cause tried to get my attention.

She was very well-trained: looked me in the eye, put her body right in my path, and said, "May I tell you how you can be a hero to a child today?"

I looked right back at her and said, "I'm sorry, today I have to be a hero to a crack-addicted prostitute, and that's all I have time for."

Her eyes widened. "What do you for a living?" I heard her ask over my shoulder as I kept on walking.

The extra-special irony is I wasn't kidding. I was on my way to the grocery store to get diapers for Dorothy. With luck I'll be able to drop them off later today.

I also want to get in touch with her social worker. The other day I ran into Yup-yup, who asked if she had found me. "I just put her on the bus," he said. She will never get clean if she keeps hanging out with him.