Street People
in the Valley of the Sun

I had no change for the bus so I went to the grocery to buy something and get change. There was red potato salad at the deli counter which Fry's makes best. I ordered some of that, paid for it, then sat down at the in-store cafe to eat the yummy stuff.

I was wearing a hat with a broad brim that shielded my eyes from the bright wall of windows facing me. There were a few people at nearby tables, including a pair of men who were filling out some sort of application. As I was finishing my salad one of them got up and moved toward the window. He was commenting aloud about something going on outside, naming coworkers involved in some sort of scuffle.

From where I was sitting I could see nothing. I, too, got up and walked forward a ways to look out the window. I saw a woman on her back on the sidewalk, legs bent close to her stomach. She wore a long skirt and sleeveless top in some sort of black jersey knit fabric. She had long bleached blond hair done in loose waves. She was hefty and tan and looked very kempt.

Two men were standing over her. One had her by her upper right arm; the other leaned down and grabbed her other arm. Together they stood her up, not too gently, and moved her toward a wall near the window.

I thought I could hear her wailing that she had not eaten for three days and it was just an apple. She was not thin and she appeared to be well dressed. One or two passersby were stopping and staring. A few other Fry's employees had come out of the store and were walking toward the group.

I disposed of my trash, walked away from the window and toward the store exit. There were many more people standing there, including employees, probably as stunned as I felt. All were staring down the way toward the incident. I looked, too, but could see nothing. Already the woman had been cleared off the walk, it seemed.

I wanted to continue with my plans to go to the clothing store next to the grocery. I moved to the curb and looked but still could see no one in my way. I heard some male voice from the crowd say, boy, she had a lot of fight in her, didn't she.

What a strange comment! I wondered where the woman had been taken and what the store personnel, all young men, were doing to her?

I began to walk to the clothing store but encountered someone returning to the grocery who said they had taken the woman into the clothing store. Abruptly deciding it was not a good time to shop there, I turned around to leave.

A tall, handsome, slim, dark-haired police officer was arriving on the scene and was being directed toward the clothing store by passersby who were still clustered at the grocery entrance. I walked through and past them all to get away from there and to catch the bus home.

Approaching the bus stop, I saw another vagrant woman sitting there. She was drinking from a bottle of something covered up in a plastic bag. I had seen her walking in the commercial area for the past half year. She always wears something different so I guess she lives in the neighborhood. Once she came up to me and I could smell alcohol on her breath. I have been working in this location for more than three years and had never seen her anywhere about and all of a sudden, this year, there she was, over and over again.

So I paused at the stair railing of a restaurant next to the bus stop. I waited there for awhile. Finally a bus came but rode right past me. I guess I was too far away from the stop.

Then a man walked over a berm at one side of the restaurant and came toward me. He was wearing very white knee socks, long shorts, and some kind of top. He was a little taller than I am. He had dark eyes and dark hair, greased back from his face, with curls at the edges. He was tanned and aged around the eyes, not a teen would be my guess, but not a senior. Maybe he was in his twenties.

He asked me if I had a quarter for the bus. I mouthed, "no", and he turned and went into the restaurant. It is not wise to give money to strangers; food is okay.

A little while later he came out and sat on a bench at the end of the building, nibbling on something. It wasn't too long before he approached me again. He asked me what I was doing there. I asked him if he was a police officer. To my great astonishment, he said, yes.

I did not know what to think. I guess I did not believe him. He asked to see some form of identification. I ignored him, told him to get away from me. He still kept saying something, calling me, Lady. I turned toward him, said, excuse me, and began to go up the steps to the restaurant. My intention was to get inside and get help.

The man did not try to stop me, but turned and proceeded in front of me, even opening the restaurant door, and entering ahead of me. It might have looked as though we were walking together. But then he walked to the left toward the restrooms. I went forward to the the cashier who began to walk around the counter, smiling at me and asking, could she help me. She was young and I did not want to alarm her.

So I asked her where the manager was. She stopped smiling and pointed behind me, he's right there. I turned in shock, expecting to see that she was pointing at the man who had been harrassing me.

But there was another man there, older than the troublemaker. I told him that the man who was now by the restrooms had been bothering me, that I was waiting for a bus and he started to bother me. We both turned to look at the object of my discussion who walked back toward us, saying loudly, all I did was ask her for a quarter.

I was ready to leave the restaurant, but when I heard that, I said to the manager, he told me he was a police officer. Then I walked quickly out of the restaurant.

I went back down to where I had been standing before. It wasn't too much later that the bothersome man was coming out of the restaurant door and heading along the front of it to the side and then out toward the back of the building. The manager followed him out, stopped at the door, and watched him walk away.

When the woman vagrant at the bus stop saw the manager, she got up and walked quickly away toward the back of the restaurant also. Then the manager looked toward me and said, it's all right. So then I went over to the bus stop and stood there.

It was a very short time later that another bus showed up and I prepared to board. The man in the shorts and white knee socks was coming back to the sidewalk a bus length away from me. He stood there and started waving and yelling something at me. I was afraid he was going to approach the bus door to get on the bus with me, but he didn't. So I got away.

What has got into people today?

I have used that bus stop and that shopping area for the past three years and have never encountered the kind of hassles that I did today. I am mystified. Was it real or some kind of performance art for who knows what purpose?

If she had shoplifted at the grocery, why did the security guards take the woman into the clothing store?

If she had only taken an apple, wasn't it an extreme reaction to knock her to the ground and then manhandle her out of sight?

Not only that, everyone here knows that all the grocery stores in the valley participate in donating part of their profits to charities through the local churches. So it was especially shocking to see grocery store personnel behave so contrarily to official store policy.

Anyhow, now I am worried about walking around alone, and about taking the bus!

Back | Forward

site design by AMarie last revision July 2004