Exchanges

                                    

                                          


                          
     "Didn't expect to see you back here so soon." The homeless man stretched out on a park bench straining to line his face up with a sunray that had poked its way through the trees.  "On good days I can smell the ocean from here..."

                          
"I need your help Caravaggio."
                          
"What say you?  You know this bench is off limits, it belongs to yours truly.  I suggest you warm your backside somewhere else."
                          
"That's not what I came here for...I lost one of my pages."
                          
"Then go find it! Must I think of everything? What do you want from me?"
                          
"It's not that simple...." Lex turned his head to a large dark droopy tree that's branches seemed to creep over the sidewalk, causing a large shadow. "A policeman has it.  He took it from me."
                          
"Let me get the mayor, I'm sure he'll listen to someone who uses maple leafs to wipe his butt..."
                          
"Ok too much information there, Caravaggio!"
                          
     "Why not?" The homeless man sat up on the bench and peered into the man's eyes, letting them linger for a second or two before he spoke. "From the looks of it, you're on your way to absolute destitution...and this story of yours is going to make the pain only that much worse.  Accept your destiny, lie here on the grass and look skyward, watch as the clouds noiselessly, slowly drift away aimlessly...we're not much different from them you know...One good thing about being homeless is that you have plenty of time...to do nothing."
                          
"I'm not ready to give up just yet...not when I've come so close. Just 11 pages left...and this will all be over."
                          
"Really, except you have no idea where to look and one of those pages is in the possession of a policeman, whom I'm assuming is looking to have you locked up."
                          
"Can you help me or not?" Lex stood over the man, casting a dark shadow over his slouched body.
                          
"The real question is, can you help me? Or more to the point have you been helping out my 'associates'?"
                          
"Associates?" Lex burrowed his eyebrows in response.  "Oh you mean the 'Renaissance' men that just happen to look like bums? The League of Losers? Yes I've met a few of them actually."
                          
"So I've heard...although I suspect there was some coercion involved hahaha. Yes I will help you just wait by the station 3 hours from now...um what time would that be?"
                          
"I don't know," Lex turned his head towards a woman walking with some shopping bags passing by, "Excuse me miss, do you have the time?"
                          
"No but I have this," She flung her nose in the air and threw a bar of soap at Lex's face. "I think you need that more than I do."
                          
 "....Thanks." He approached an older gentleman but the instant he got close the man plugged his nose and picked up his pace, crossing the street in order to avoid getting closer to Lex.
                          
"This is ridiculous, how hard is it for someone to tell me the time?"
                          
"Ewwww, get away Creep!" A mailman hurried into his car sliding across the hood to the driver's side while still holding his breath to prevent inhaling the unusual smell.
                          
     "I-I have the time!" A blind man with a seeing cane piped up.  Lex stared incredulously as the man tapped his cane until he was a few feet from him. Tap! Tap!  He felt the white and red cane pang against his right leg.  "Oh there you are! Look! See, I have this nice rolex on my wrist!"
                          
"Um...sir, all I see is a rubber band..."
                          
     "That's impossible, I just had it on a few minutes ago! I must have dropped it somewhere...Young man," The man groped for his shoulder. "Be so kind as to help me find it...it was an Oyster Perpetual Day Date, the supreme symbol of luxury among the world's elite."