Encounter

A man was lying dead next to a bus station. A crowd was gathering. He had long hair and beard; dirty and messy. A yellow fluid flowed from his mouth to his beard. His eyes among the dirty features of his face were open. He had a dirty brown jacket near him, and a half eaten corn on the ground. He didn't die immediately. Perhaps a year passed while he waited his death. It was a crowded bus station. A moment before his death, a man with an enormous backpack and a rifle walked out of a nearby ferryboat station and as he walked on, he noticed the poor half naked man sleeping and stuffed his pocket with some money. The bus I was waiting for arrived and the bus driver opened the window to warn him that thieves would steal the money which he had put in the poor man's pocket. He was astonished at it and after contemplating a while, took his phone and made some calls. He called the police but they directed him to some other institution, and so did they to municipality. He was distressed while he was trying to get someone to help him, but no one was opening at the other side of the phone albeit he called so stubbornly. Meanwhile the poor man died and the man next to me, checking his pulse, said that he is dead. Upon hearing the death sentence, he quit calling and came closer. His face was aghast and agony was legible in his mimics. The man next to me started talking about the police and ambulance that came few times and left indifferently. After check-up, he was found healthy and that was it. He even said that they didn't take him into the ambulance because he was stinking and filthy. He called the police and said in anger: "Now you can bring in the funeral". What he seemed to have forgotten is that poor people don't have funeral. When the police came, he proclaimed it "the crime of no one, and everyone" He told that it was social indifference that killed this man. People were annoyed and one of them rebutted: "Have you more conscience than we?". He had to say no. He didn't want to let go, so he called T.V. in desperation. Someone said: "You will get trouble", the police obligingly said: "you have done your civic duty, you may leave" Another said: "There are more in the streets, why don't you go and save them?" The mob was getting angry and one of them, swearing madly, walked on him as he backed off from the crowd. T.V. came and took a brief record of what he had to say. Someone took him away, and although I checked every channel, there were no news of him anywhere.