The Streets

Chapter 5: Aid

The brilliant news of the new opportunity at hand forced me into a silent daydream. I was so absorbed in a whirlwind of my own thoughts that I barely noticed the thud against the glazed café window. It was James who first alerted me as his head jolted to the direction of the sound. I followed his gaze and was shocked at what I could see from the window. So shocked in fact, that I jumped up from my chair, spilling coffee over the table and made a start to the door. Outside, a black, homeless man was crouched on the floor in a foetal position as a tall man in a posh black suit and tie towered over him. A mark could clearly be seen on the normally-sparkling clean window, from where the man's head had been slammed against it. James grabbed my arm.
'Charlie, don't do this,' he said with a serious gaze at me. 'Think about how it will end.'
I thought about what he said, yet my decision could not be stirred. I was intent on helping the abused man. Walking into the café I had took no attention to him and his cardboard sign, engraved with sickeningly sad words. Now I had to repay him.
As I open the rustic door of the coffee shop, the women started to talk to me, yet was interrupted swiftly by James, as he placed £2.00 onto the counter, before following me out.
The events outside seemed even more sickening than from the window. The man's collection tin was lying on its side on the ground, an assortment of change lying close beside it. The card sign was ripped in two, both pieces now lost to the defiant London wind. I pushed to the clearly-shocked crowd and skidded to a halt next to the man's side.
'You okay?' I asked, as kindly as I could.
He waited for a while, before hoarsely replying, 'I... Think.'
I hastily snatched his money back from the ground and placed it inside the collection tin, before returning it to the frail man. He nodded slowly, before raising his bony hand to point to a figure behind me. I knew all to well what the figure was. Turning, I saw the aggressive business man, who had attacked the homeless man just a minute earlier.
'Move,' I heard him say in a simple, deep voice. I gestured for the frail man behind me to move away.
'LISTEN!' He shouted now, clearly frustrated at my efforts to help the homeless man. The encounter was causing quite a stir, and some cars were even stopping by the roadside to watch. I was caught off-guard as he suddenly took a strong lunge at me. But still, I was nimble and was able to dodge by jumping to the side just in time, causing the brute of a man to stumble into the café wall. Suddenly, the crowd seemed to part, and a police officer pushed through, dressed in a dark black uniform and cap. He did not look happy, but to my great surprise, the officer did not move first to the angry business man, but me! He strapped a pair of handcuffs onto me, before moving to the brute and doing the same, with a slightly bigger pair.
'I don't know what's happening here, but we'll find out soon enough won't we!' He said with a cruel smile. He pointed at the ragged man, who was clearly traumatised.
'You come too. We need some evidence'
And so we all entered the back of the rusty police car, sirens blaring, and we began to move, closer and closer to the police station...