Do you have a dollar...?

Every morning, I run into people who either are homeless, crazy or sick asking/begging for money.  

On my way to work, I always run into a little old lady who’s always asking everyone in a shrilly voice, “Do you have a dollar?”  

Is spare change no longer enough?    

She goes around to each person asking for a dollar.   Even if you do give her a buck, she will continue on asking the next person.  Only on a few occasions, has she asked for money “to get something to eat” or “a cup of coffee”.  

One morning, I saw the little old lady standing there.  I looked at her and immediately knew something was up.  Maybe she didn’t take her medication or something but she had the crazed look in her eyes.  When we got on the train, she seemed pretty quiet.  Maybe a little too quiet…that’s when you have to be on alert!  

Surprisingly, she didn’t ask anyone for money.  She stood quietly in front of two ladies that were seated.  Suddenly she tried snatching away the book that one woman was reading.   The woman managed to take her book back and got up and left to go to the other end of the train.  The second lady figured she was not going to stick around to see what this crazy old lady was going to do next so she got up and left too.  There were two empty seats and the little old lady did not sit on either seat.  She just stood there, not saying a word.  When the train stopped to pick up passengers, another lady walks in and sees the empty seats and she goes to sit down.  Just as she is about to sit, the little old lady screams, “Don’t sit there!”  “You can’t sit there!”  “Get out!”  The lady was about to get up and move and took a good look at the little old lady and decided she was not going to let the lady bully her.  So she just ignored her and continued sitting.  

I kept trying to keep my eye on the little old lady as she was behind me and I could tell she wanted to start trouble.  I was afraid she was going to come up to me from behind and try something.  She kept looking around at people and actually went over to a guy that was sitting across from me and got on his face.  She continued moving on.  She then decided she wanted to pick a fight.  There was a young girl sitting further down from me and the little old lady grabbed her by the blouse and tried to hit her.  The girl yelled out “Stop it!”  “Stop it!”  And she soon called for the conductor.  The little old lady finally released her from her grip and left her alone.  She walked back to where she was previously standing.  I didn’t see what happened next.  But when I turned to look back, I saw the top of a coffee cup fall to the floor.  I believe the little old lady tried either knocking out or taking away someone’s cup of coffee…and that someone was a BIG guy.  She soon began to apologize, “I’m sorry… I only wanted a cup of coffee.”  The guy must have felt sorry for her and gave her his cup.  My fear was that, as crazy as she was acting, she could have easily thrown the cup of hot coffee at someone.  She continued to apologize and then out of the blue she began cussing to no one in particular.  

Riding the train every day, you come across some strange people.  And yet at the same time, you run across the same people and never know who they really are.

I don’t know where this little old lady goes every morning.  Does she go to work?  Or is she really homeless?  But every day you can expect her to ask you, “Do you have a dollar?”

No!  Do you?