Humility (Spare change)

Humility

What is it to have humility? this was not a question he had ever asked himself. raised in a family without the need for anything other than whatever they could think to ask for.

Nothing was beyond him, it is said some are born with a silver spoon in their mouth, well for that analogy to fit, it would have been closer to his family hiring someone to have the spoon in their mouth

it was far beneath him to think about something as common as silver, let alone it being a spoon in the mouth of the prodigal son, no he was set for more in this life and no one or nothing could stand in the way of that.

His car pulled into the handicapped bay in front of the mall, it was not a place he would have ever considered going, the place reeked of cheapness, even down to the gaudy Halloween decorations that littered the windows and walls of the outside of the mall.

Speaking with his friend Gerald on the phone last night, they had conjured up some insane plan to go to the dirt mall, not its name but they called it that, go there and slum it with the peasants.

Now he had arrived, he was not sure he wanted to do this, he could already see that his supped-up Italian sports car was getting far too many looks from the locals and he was not sure if it would even be out front when he came back.

What in the holy hell was Gerald even thinking about wanting to come here, probably wanted to indulge in his urge to try and go all low life and get with one of the mall girls, that boy did not know his place in life and sure liked to slum it whenever the chance arose.

Looking around he cursed silently and resisted the urge to shoo away a couple of the local teenagers that were taking more of an interest in him and his car than he wanted them to.

He was going to skin Gerald alive for this, they had arranged to meet here, he stopped to look at the clock on the dash of the car and then looked around again and once again could not see him.

Letting out a sigh he sat back further in his seat in an attempt to avoid the attention of any more of the local kids, at this rate he would have to end up throwing money at them to get them to leave him alone.

Another few minutes passed quietly and still, he could not see his friend, the urge to leave was now foremost on his mind and he reached to touch the ignition switch on the steering wheel.

"Spare some change?"

The voice suddenly came from his driver's side window, his head whipping around to see what could only be described as a filth-covered human of some description, the unwashed smell now filling his nostrils as he fought to control his sudden increase in heart rate and breathing.

"What?"

He asked incredulously, the nerve of this man, well at least he believed it was a man, it was difficult to tell through all the dirt and unkempt long filthy hair that covered half of their face.

"Change, can you spare some?"

The breath coming from his would-be attacker was now more sickening than the personal hygiene or lack of it that was assaulting his sense of smell and he had to fight the urge to reach for the window controls and wind it up.

"No, No I cannot, get a job, all my servants have jobs"

He blurted out, now becoming quite flustered at this invasion of his personal space by what he now could see was actually a woman, he could not tell much more, but she could have been of some ethnic persuasion if he had to make an educated guess.

"Give me some money or you are going to regret it, you will, you will"

The voice now confirmed it was indeed a woman as the pitch and tone rose as she spoke excitedly as she made her attempts at extortion with menacing intent towards him.

"I will not be threatened nor will I give you any more, now go away before I call the police"

He blurted out, now flustered beyond a point that he was used to being pushed to, yes he was really going to let Gerald have it now.

"Alright, I did warn you mister, do not say I didn't"

The woman said and reached into the inside of the filthy sweater she wore, now black and brown with lord knows what and if it had been any other colour originally then he could not tell what.

He gasped in shock as he watched her hand inside the sweater, was she going to shoot him or stab him, this was terrible, just terrible. his head turning around to see another car pulling up behind where he was parked.

The terror gripped him tighter until he squinted his eyes tighter and saw the car was Gerald's and he suddenly felt safer with his friend here, now he would tell the scruffy unwashed peasant what for.

He turned his head back and saw himself looking back into his car and could see himself sitting in the driver's seat, his mouth falling open as he watched himself smile back.

He could not move, could not bring himself to speak just stare wildly at himself or someone that looked like him sitting in his car, his car. this must have been some wild dream, yes he would wake up in a moment and call this stupid trip off.

Before he could compose himself, he heard the engine of the car gun into life and he watched in total shock as it pulled away from the curb and tore away like some sort of bat out of hell and a moment later was gone from his sight.

Gerald would help him, yes, that was it, Gerald would help him he thought to himself and turned to where the car was parked behind where his own vehicle had previously been.

He looked over to see Gerald behind the wheel of the car, but instead of a look of recognition on his friend's face, he was greeted with a look of horror as he looked back.

Help me, he called out as he began to stumble towards where his friend's car was, a feeling of agony in his legs as he did, his head looking downwards to see that he was now dressed in the filthy clothes that the beggar had been wearing.

His head snapped back up and he took several steps towards Gerald's car and once again asked weakly for help even as the car was reversing away from him, he tried to move a little quicker but the pain he felt did not allow him to do so.

"Get a job"

He heard Gerald shout at him and felt a soda can strike him on the shoulder as it was thrown from the car as it began to move forward and leave him standing there confused and without anything in the world.