Hummm…I’m wondering, I know that’s almost as dangerous as me thinking, but anyway - I was wondering, is Las Vegas a haven for panhandlers or am I the kind of person that just attracts them like a moth to a flame (sorry had to use a cliché ) It seems that no matter where I go someone comes up to me and asks for a dollar or some spare change so they could ride the bus, get gas for their car that just happened to run out of gas, or get something to eat. A few have even asked for a dollar so they could buy a beer. Most times if I have it, I’ll give it to them on account of my sister ingrained that whole idea into my physique that it might be my guardian angel testing me. Some times though, I just want to yell, “Damn you guardian angels! Why do you keep testing me?” I bet that would freak out the guy asking for money. The only time I don’t give anyone money is when I don’t have it or when I have my nephew or niece with me. I think that for the most part people are good, but even so, I don’t want to have the kids with me when or if I ever meet up with that one bad person who’ll knock me over the head and take the change from my pocket thinking I have more money than I do as I’m walking across the parking lot to the store.

The other night I went to the store and as happens most times when I’m walking across any parking lot someone comes out of nowhere and asks for money. This time was no different. This time my guardian angel came in the form of a young guy. The young guy walks right up to me and puts one arm around my shoulders as if we’re friends and asks if I have fifty cents or a dollar he can have because he was an orphan living on the streets and hasn’t eaten in four days. I pull away from him because I don’t even let people I know invade my personal space like that so I’m not going to let someone I don’t know get that close to me. I tell him that I don’t have anything to give him at the moment. He says ok, but then asks if I would give him something when I finish shopping. I told him that I’d see after I finished. I didn’t say yes right away because I didn’t want to obligate myself to giving him money. If I had a dollar bill I would have given it to him right then and there, but at the time all I had on me was a twenty dollar bill and I had to buy two loaves of bread and a few other sandwich things to feed visitors at my house.

I went inside and did my shopping. I counted my change, setting aside a dollar bill and all the coins I was given so I could give it to the young guy if he was still outside. As soon as I walked out I saw him asking someone else for a dollar. The other person didn’t give him a dollar, or at least not that I could see so the guy walked away and the young guy threw him the finger and said, “Fuck you” which kind of surprised me because most people that I haven’t given money to that have asked would still say something like “God bless you“ or “have a nice/good day“. It was at that time that the young guy looked over to where I was and made his way toward me. “So, are you gonna’ help a brutha out?” I started to reach for the dollar and change not thinking too much about it when I realized something that I hadn’t realized before. This guy was dressed better than me. He was wearing a Rocawear Rugby shirt about $80 at Macy’s and Rocawear metallic threadz jeans about $98 at Macy’s (I didn’t know the value at the time - I looked them up online) and he was listening to an I-pod.

I looked at him and asked, “Dude, how can you ask me for a dollar when you’re wearing Rocawear and you have a better I-pod than I have because I can‘t even afford one?”

He got this dumb look on his face and looked down at his clothes as if he had forgotten what he was wearing and then looked back at me. “Uh…my mom just bought these for me…”

“You said you were an orphan.” He didn’t say anything so I asked him. “Are you an orphan or not?”

“Well…I’m not really, but …”

All I could say was “see ya” as I turned and walked away. Guardian angel or not, I’m not giving a dollar to someone who is wearing a shirt that cost more than everything I’m wearing at the time.

As I was walking away I could hear him say something that sounded like “fuck you” - I guess it was just his way of saying “God bless you and have a nice day.”