The Bum

The bum had the calmness of a Zen Master, and the grace of a ballerina. His face was smooth and pristine and his body was limp and relaxed. His poise was excellent; straight but not forced.

His hair went half way down his back. It was thick as could be, in dreadlocks.

He had looked at me for just one brief moment, and then he changed his view towards the windshield, not staring at any particular thing just letting his eyes take a nap. He was smiling softly the whole time.

I started driving again, and we had not yet exchanged any words. When I shifted into second, I decided to break the uncomfortable silence (well, it was uncomfortable for me).

"So, where ya headed?"

It was about the most natural thing that someone would say in my case, even before hello’s, the "where ya headed" comes first.

"Wherever the road takes me," he said.

I could hardly even tell that he had spoken, for his head remained perfectly still. But it wasn’t a fixed sort of still. It was a natural sort of still.

"Well," I said and half smiled half laughed, "I suppose that’s as good a plan as any!"

He turned towards me and just gave me a pleasant look. I think he had detected some sarcasm in my voice, though I really didn’t mean to be sarcastic. Or, maybe I did. I have to admit the idea of this guy having no place to go sort of made me . . .jealous.

I wasn’t sure if he was going to say anything else. He didn’t after a moment, and so I tried to strike up a conversation again.

"Well, uh, where ya comin’ from?"

"Lexington."

Hmm, Lexington, I thought. Ah yes, Lexington was a small forest enclosed town off of route 37.

"Wow that’s about eighty ninety miles from here. How many rides have you hitched so far?"

"This is my first one actually," he said lightly.

I just gave him a confused look, and he read it as I had planned, "You mean you really walked all that way?"

His smile rose after we made eye contact. Then he said, "Yeah, I take quite a bit of pleasure out of walking."

"Boy that’s a long way. How long have you walking? It couldn’t have been just today."

"It’s been a few days."

I was hopping that he would continue, but he said was silent. There were so many things I wanted to ask him. What had he done in Lexington? What had he left Lexington? Did he have a job? If not (and I’ll tell you it didn’t seem like it) then what did he eat? Where had he been sleeping? Where did he get his clothes?

I wanted to ask him all of these things in a row, just to ease my curiosity, but I knew that would be rude. I put myself in his place and decided that I wouldn’t like being interrogated. Then again, I was giving him a ride; the least he could do was give me an interesting conversation.

Without warning, he went on with what he had been saying:

"I took the back roads, through the woods."

"I see." I paused for a moment, my next pending question was a bit straight forward and I was not sure whether I wanted to ask it. Then again, we were through with small talk; this was a conversation we were having now. So I just asked it.