The wind flew through the hair of every person on the street, creating
whirlpools and knotting it up. Strands of hair whipped all around heads and delicate
umbrellas were reversed. The cold seeped through clothing and odd garments were
plucked from their owners and sent on the way of a fast-paced journey. Gloved
hands and woolly hats could be seen all around. Trench coats soaked with water
and suits carrying wrinkles. Rain splattered down on all moving things and
drenched those who didn't move, adding shivers when mixed with the frosty air.
Business men hurried from one side to the other, yapping away on their
phones, all caught up in the rush of work and oblivious to the rest. Girls
fidgeted with their hands, anxious to go into stores and buy them out, while
mothers tried to pacify howling infants on their shoulders, without avail. The
sidewalk was crowded with obvious haste noted everywhere, and the cars did
little to soothe the surrounding chaos. All around, vehicles honked and swerved
to pass others in unbelievable ways, while cabs stocked up on the side, bikers
twisted and dodged through the mass and drivers yelled to pass through,
let alone the buses, all barely moving from the mess and dying out their horns.
Yet in the corner, aware of every detail but still to take part in it,
sat a helpless pauper. She was a sight to see, yet nobody did stop to see her.
Sodden hair clung to her face, being washed, for the first time in many days,
by the deluging polluted water. Desolate eyes that stared at each passerby,
with a tingle of hope to fulfill a dream of food, a dream that once was the
nature of life, being consumed and fulfilled every single day, at least thrice.
She knew nobody was going to stop and help her, nobody even had a second to
glance at her. Many were the times when she thought to have encountered a
helping hand, to discover the absence of a single look. She had been living
there for four months, and knew the cold face of solace and abandonment, with
each day passing as a blur of unknown faces and shattered hopes.
She had once known a safe home, far from the horror of the streets. She
had once known the delight of a warm meal, two times a day. Something that now
was impossible, and she knew that perfectly well, yet something in her sparked
up every time she caught a passerby glance at her, a fleeting look. Long gone
were the times when embarrassment overthrew her and didn't let even risk to
plead, long gone were the days when she hid her face, in hopes of no
recognition, the days when she tried to quell her uneasy hair. She used to be a
proud woman, sure in her territory and deft in her skills, whatever they were.
She used to be a lioness, in charge of her domains, and as mighty as any hunter
that existed. Now, she was the last part of the line, the edge at the end of a
cliff. Whatever once had been important, was now a bittersweet memory, left
alone in the crevasses of happy days.
She had tried, she really had, she had tried to survive. but that had
only brought more solace and desperation. Her eyes had seen many misfortunes,
quite a lot of them hers to claim, yet she still had hope, hope that one day
all those looks of pity that she received would do something other than that,
something other than looking. She wished her life had turned out different but
deep inside her she knew, she knew she would never get out of this circle of
misery. Her life had been tested, and she had failed the exam, without knowing
it was even taking place.
Her hands were kept warm inside her armpits, but still, numbness was a
constant. Her fingers were wrinkled and worn from the street life. Age had
suddenly taken action and her once defined and prided gifts were blended to
age’s touch and desire. Dried chapped lips and shivering limbs were her day to
day.
The rain pouring down on her did little to help her situation ,only now,
it wasn't just cold what overcame her, but frigid sensation. Chill. Frost. The
tattered clothing rescued from dumps and rubbish bins, allowed the air to seep
through them and invaded her prickly, sensitive skin, acknowledging the
incessant goosebumps.
She stared up at the many people passing, all oblivious to the water
that trickled down her forehead, creating a mass of salty foul water on her
dirty cheeks as both falling river-works, from the sky and her eyes, merged
together.
Of course nobody would notice her,
it's not like she expected them to. She knew that before even trying to get
attention. As soon as she stared up into the face of a lonesome glance, she
could read the pity and the sadness, yet those feelings never overpowered their
owner, leaving her without the small change she so desperately needed. It was a
perpetual tradition, an unspoken, unbroken rule among people of higher classes;
to not give money to those in need of it , to not waste hard-earned
money on homeless when just around the corner a Starbucks awaited, never
mind the non-stop empty feeling in each of their stomachs. She lived
in a society where money was destined to whims, where she was just a forgotten
body awaiting food, left on the side, like a corpse left to rot.
Hypocrite women stared her down, with their charity events they raised money to
help those in need, yet they ignored her and stuck up their noses, passing by
her without a care to her trembling body filled with an entire wish of
warmness. They stared at her, the purest sign of poverty on the street in front
of their very noses, but nothing was done.
The freezing storm attacked her limbs time after time and she hunched up as
tight as she could, closing her eyes and evading the harsh reality. This was
the longest time she had gone without food,maybe a week or so, and her
body strength was weakening. She even risked lapping up the water
falling from the sky, knowing the diseases it carried.
She was left alone to survive on
her own through the misery, till the eternal darkness put her out of
it. Oblivious to pain and suffering. Hardened hearts leaving at
their own will. Destinies to put in the hands of others.
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Speak the truth, how many of you have passed a homeless on the street and
avoided their gaze? How many of you have felt great pity when going into a
building, having seen a beggar at the entrance, diverting your gaze in hopes to
not see them? Admittedly, so have I. We choose to not help those in need,
we choose to opportunely forget there are those in worse conditions. We
try to save money when buying food or clothes, some not even that, when that
little fancy we're craving is just the money someone else needs to be able to
have something in their stomachs, after days on end without anything. I'm
sure you've all heard the famous line, "Keep your coins, I want
change". We should definitely apply that to our lives, even just
a teeny bit, every small bit counts as help, even if you doubt
that statement. I just ask for you to think back and change something, no
matter how infinite.
Any way, enjoy your weekend!So yeah, comments down below and stuff like that. Thanks for reading, love you!
Esther Alós © All rights reserved
