Another weird day for me, it started after my meeting and a buddy and I decided to catch a late night snack at Chili's. I had went to the ATM to get some cash. I remember taking the cash out of the machine, I remember the receipt for the transaction, I remember walking out, but when it ended up time to ante up for dinner I didn't have it, so I had to use the card. It was 20 bucks wasted, but I would of wasted it anyway, that what happens when you have been brainwashed for 30 years by our friends on Madison Avenue. But this was not the weird part.
So, my friend and I were sitting in his car, talking about this and that, and we had reached the topic of a person we know who had just re-entered a bad relationship. We were then frightened half to death beacuse some strange dude was tapping and looking in to our window!. Some background on where we live, (I live a street over from him) it is not the best neighborhood in town...so when someone strange knocks on the window, usually its a cop or a carjacker, but this guy was neither.
First he asked us (in a rambling manner) if we knew where the jail was in New Haven.( I knew where it was but I wanted to see where this was going so said nothing). He then proceeded to tell us that he had just came out of the Cheshire prison afetr serving a 11 month stint (for what he did not say, but I bet it was for carjacking), he even rattled off the correct address for the prison (I had worked there as a technician, Cheshire is a pretty rough place).At this point my friend and I wondered where he was going with this, but here came the pitch, he had been let out today and he needed 8 bucks to get back to Harlem.
If I was a betting man, I'd bet this guy was full of crap, since it costs way more than 8 bucks to catch a train from New Haven to NYC. Also, who hangs out in a bummy yet quiet neighborhood after midnight loking for money? But he was not a bum and his hair was cut prison style (close to the scalp) and he did have the prison address down cold.
Well, we ended giving him the money. Sure he could be lighting up a crack pipe as we speak, but sometimes people do fall on really tough times. But he did'nt get off scot free, we both are religious people, and gave him some Bible literature, who knows it may do him some good. And who knows, maybe next time I am wandering around Harlem with no money and no way home, he can give me the eight bucks back.