We Went To A Popular Chinese Restaurant Monday Evening For Dinner…

Got out of my car and the boy was walking ahead and he turned to me and warned “There’s a guy near the door & I think he’s asking for money.” He was standing off to the side and not right in front of the door. This guy was young, mid-20s, no shirt & a huge belly, wearing slide-on plastic shoes a size too small & jogging pants. He was doing a small step pace back and forth while holding his arms down around the bottom of his belly. Stops when he sees us walking up & says in a quiet almost childlike voice “Can you give me some money?” I said no and we went inside. I told the boy the food & shelter place was a few blocks away and if he lives around here he would know that. Maybe he was hungry for Chinese food or needed something from the Dollar Tree but he can’t go inside either one without a shirt. Seemed something off about him if he was mental he was too subdued about it. I also noticed when we were about to leave that he was not standing in eye-shot of the restaurant’s windows. So he definitely knew how to stay out of their line of sight. The boy went to school the next day and talked about this guy at lunch. One of his friends told him that he sounded exactly like a guy they saw while visiting Scissortail Park in Oklahoma City, he described his size, what he was wearing and the fact that he was doing the small-step pacing back and forth while not moving from the area. I told the boy if this guy was really mental how did he travel from OKC to our town to stand around and panhandle? And he goes where the people are, Scissortail Park was probably having some kind of event up there when the other boy was there. Small world. All kinds of panhandlers these days trying different schtick’s get sympathy and money.