Sitting at a sidewalk cafe...

Yesterday I was sitting at a sidewalk cafe having a cup of coffee and reading a book. At some point someone stopped in front of me.

I looked up and saw a woman of indeterminate age (was she 40 looking like 60, 60 looking like 60, or, most probably 50) standing there and apparently talking to me. I say apparently because I was listening to music on my iPod and could only see her lips moving. Based on her dress, demeanor and the fact that she was holding her hand out at me, I realized quite quickly that she was a beggar. I looked up without hearing a word of what she had to say, I flashed her a quick plastic smile and went back to reading.

She just stayed there and apparently kept on talking. Darn, strategy number one (ignore) and two (smile and ignore) had failed. I tried strategy number three, I looked up, smiled, and spread my arms and shrugged my shoulders trying to convey 'sorry I can't help you'. She remained and kept on talking. So I took off my earphones and looked up to hear what she had to say. Doing so I looked more closely at the woman: she had natty hair (rasta style but without the style), an old dress, and the worst teeth I have seen in a long time. Black, twisted teeth, wasted teeth. And what was she saying, in broken French with a Spanish-Italian-Portuguese accent (not sure which) it sounded like 'sorry but could you spare some money for a coffee, I drink too much coffee and if I don't drink coffee I get a bad headache.' She then patted her head, as if she was saying 'my poor head' and smiled again.

She said it in a non-aggressive and somewhat apologetic manner. For some reason I thought it was cute and thought, what the heck, she doesn't look like she is going to buy alcohol or drugs with it. She probably really just wants a coffee. As I was digging for some change in my pocket she flashed me a smile and that is when I noticed her eyes. Brown eyes, standard in that department, but extremely lively, friendly and young! The splendor, sparkle and youth in her eyes was in such contrast to all the rest I couldn't believe it. The hardship that her body, hair and hygiene were communicating were nowhere to be found in her eyes. It really was surreal. 

I finally found some money and gave it to her and her entire face lit up like a little girl on Christmas morning. She took a few steps and then turned around and smiled at me again, nodded, said 'may God bless you' and then walked slowly around the corner - out of my view and, undoubtedly, life.

I couldn't stop thinking about her eyes. It is difficult to convey but it was surreal - the book and the cover were telling such completely different stories that I was left wondering who she really was and what had really just happened...