Lest I forget

Walking on the pedestrian footbridge to work, I came across a pair of familiar, dirt encrusted, dry, cracked feet sitting in a criss-cross position. He usually sits under the bridge near the Kowloon Public Library with his plastic bag of his only worldly belongings, reading a Bible with red-edged pages. Today was the first I've seen him at this particular location, a favourite amongst the homeless. Prickly eyed, I stopped a few feet past him, struggling to locate my coin purse from the depths of my HK$259 H&M handbag. I turned, withdrew the HK$5, and placed it in his little bucket. Within a moment of seconds, he had thanked me profusely ("Thank you, thank you, thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!")and I was once again walking briskly to work. His words still lingering in my ears, and a warm sensation in my heart.

It was after work, I saw him standing across the zebra crossing. Hardly any cars appear on this one-way road, so ignoring the angry red man in the traffic light, I began my way across. He was a smartly-dressed kid with a cheerful smile, holding the hand of his papa, his mama smiling at the two of them as they strolled to the light. His father makes as if to continue his stroll, ignoring as I did, the red man's warning. He then pulled on his father's arm, refusing to budge, "You can't! It's a red light!". Slightly irritated, his father, who appears to also be a frequent visitor of this particular crossing, explains to him that no cars go past this route and moves forward once again. Once again, a tug on the sleeve, "You can't! It's a red light!" He starts hopping from one foot to another, adamant yet the cheery smile still on his face. By the time, I had already made my way across the black and white stripes, a smile had formed on my previously worm-out face. It had only taken less than 10 seconds.