A few weeks back, as I walked out of my office building Downtown, I was approached by a homeless woman.  She came right up to me and asked if I would go to Starbucks to buy her a mocha.  She directed me to the nearest store (across the street, but not the one in the building, the one on the corner of the building, next to the Seattle’s Best Coffee) and started shouting.  Please buy me a mocha!  I just love them so much! I was on the phone, so I didn’t have the time or patience to buy her the drink she loved so dearly..

I had never seen this particular woman before.  Usually there are several homeless people around town that I see quite often.  The gentleman with the velcro hospital shoes, the guy who yells “Fuck you!” repeatedly and at no one in particular, that one guy who squawks like a parrot and another woman who huddles near the post office covered in with her headscarf and piles of blankets.  It is heartbreaking. But this woman had not been familiar to me.

Last week, as I left my building in search of a sandwich, I crossed the street and that same lady who had asked me for a mocha a few weeks back ran right up to me.  She asked me for $5.00 to buy a box of sanitary pads.  When I told her I didn’t have cash, she started getting more excitable and loud, I NEED FIVE DOLLARS FOR SANITARY PADS!  SANITARY PADS! She blocked the door to the building, flailed her arms and kept going on about sanitary pads. I JUST NEED FIVE DOLLARS FOR SANITARY PADS!  SANITARY PADS! SANITARY PADS! Finally I said no, I didn’t have any cash.  She moved aside and then told me, It’s okay, I’ll wait right here.  You can give it to me when you come back out.  Take your time!  I’LL BE RIGHT HERE! And so I went in and made my way to the sandwich shop.

As I was coming back, I saw the woman enter the building and turn to walk away from me, so I made a beeline for the door.  As I sat at the crosswalk waiting for the light to change, she came tearing out of the building towards me, yelling LADY!  I’M RIGHT HERE!  HERE I AM!  DO YOU HAVE MY FIVE DOLLARS FOR SANITARY PADS! I JUST NEED SANITARY PADS! I told her I didn’t have cash.  I hadn’t gone to the bank, I just went to get lunch.  Then she yelled, WELL, YOU GET BACK IN THERE AND GET SOME FROM THE CASH MACHINE!

It was at this point that I got kind of irritated.  I had been kind.  I didn’t ignore her.  I answered her questions and apologized for not being able to help her out and now she was demanding I go to the cash machine?  I did not want to cause a scene.  I didn’t want to look like some asshole who beat down a homeless woman who was only trying to get a few bucks for some Kotex, but come on.  A person can only take so much.

I again told her I was sorry, I didn’t have cash and I wasn’t going to get some from the cash machine.  All the while I am sitting there waiting for the longest fucking light to change so I could go back to work and eat my egg salad in peace.  And then she grabbed for my drink and asked if she could have it.  I again said I was sorry.  I don’t know what I was apologizing for at that point, because I am not the one who was holding a $20 dollar bill crumpled in my fist while harassing some lady about her Diet Coke and screaming SANITARY PADS! I NEED SANITARY PADS! When it was clear I wasn’t going to give her my drink, she grabbed her throat and started screaming I CAN’T SWALLOW!  I CAN’T SWALLOW! while people on the sidewalk stared at me, like maybe I’d karate chopped her in the windpipe.  After about 47 hours of sitting at the crosswalk with a woman screaming at me about sanitary pads, the light finally changed and I left her behind to hustle after a man in a suit.

It should be said that this story is best told in person, where I can scream SANITARY PADS! in your face and flail my arms wildly about.