I was at the house on Saturday last when the doorbell rang. My wife was coming down the stairs and looked at me as if to ask "are you expecting anyone?"
I wasn't.
I opened the door nonetheless.
There at the door was a young woman, in her early twenties at most. She was short and quite slight with dark hair and very dark eyes.
She didn't say a word. Instead she made a slight muffled squeak and handed me a piece of paper and a tiny little pen.
On the paper was a badly photocopied table, all out of line with the edges of the paper. At the top of the page was written something like "certificate of the association of deaf, dumb and mute persons". I can't remember the exact wording.
On the page I could see a whole list of signatures on the left hand side, a postcode beside each in the next column, and then the county name on the next. In the last column, the rightmost column was the contribution made by each of those who signed.
I remember feeling that it would be mean-spirited not to make a contribution so I took the tiny pen and filled in my details. I handed her a 5 euro note, pretty much what everyone else had contributed. She made a little squeak and took back the pen and sheet from me. She turned and walked down the driveway and up the road.
I shut the door, not quite sure what to make of what happened. I felt a bit uneasy about the slightly adhoc nature of the sheet I had just seen.
A couple of minutes later I needed to go somewhere. I can't remember where I was going but nonetheless I was going out. I drove the car up the road and turned left into the main avenue and happened to notice a group of three people standing next to the wall by the kerb. They were peering into a bag and chatting.
There she was, the young woman who had just called to my door minutes previously.
Now I'm not going to comment extensively on what I saw except to say that this young woman and the two people with her were clearly engaged in what you would call "normal conversation".
I am disappointed in myself for not trusting my intuition at my own door. I am even more disappointed that a human being would stoop so low as to profit from those who are truly unfortunate.
Sometimes I don't need to leave the house to be amazed. And saddened.
3 comments:
What an awful story. I'd like to post her photo all over your town so no one else gets duped by her. Well, I'm sure karma will get her if no one else does.
I was driving in Los Angeles a few years back and a homeless-looking man was eweaving through the cars stopped at a stoplight. As he approached my car, I could see he held his right arm close to his body and limped so he favored his right leg; he looked like a stroke victim.
I rolled down my window and gave him a dollar, and when I drove away feeling satisfied with my good deed, I caught a glimpse of him in the rearview mirror.
He was walking normally. Sauntering, almost. Needless to say, that was the last time I gave money to anyone. I'll buy food, but I never give money anymore.
That is shocking. I don't know what else to say.
I guess the good thing is that most people are decent enough to know that this is a BAD thing to do. There'll always be a few who stoop to such depths. What can you do.. not much.
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