The Pie Man is sitting in the middle of the street again. He has raided all the recycling bins in the neighborhood and is now counting and sorting his take. He favors the aluminum because he knows that gives him the most income for his work.
He carefully replaces all the glass and paper back into the bins and begins walking into town. He has two extra large black plastic bags filled with empty Coors, Coke, Bud, and Pepsi cans that he has squashed into compact shapes.
The neighbors can hear him out there early in the morning on a weekly basis. He wants to beat the trucks that come for collection every Tuesday. They can hear him stomping the cans, fueling up his bags with his catch. No one really cares. He is harmless enough. The only real concern is for him. Even on this quiet residential street, a car might zoom by without seeing the focused recycler… and splat!
He sits sprawled in the middle of the street his belly hanging between his spread legs, his stacks of cans, paper and glass surrounding him. His stained tan chinos held up by red suspenders, a dirty white t-shirt, unkempt hair, stubble of a beard. His demeanor and speech are somewhat frightening. “My brother scares people,” his sister tells me one day as she is out getting the mail. “But no worries, he is harmless.”
He sticks his head into the open window of the passenger’s side of the car stopped at a stop sign getting ready to turn left. “I want some pie!” he demands. “Do you have any pie?’ Kristie nearly jumps out of her skin as his fetid breath and the smell of his unwashed hair hits her smack in the face.
“I’m going to the store now. Maybe I’ll get some…” she says to him trying to be polite to the obviously handicapped man.
“I wanna go too!” he demands trying the handle on the passenger side. Luckily the doors are locked – a habit she acquired while living in the city some years back.
“See you later,” she calls out to him as she guns the engine, makes the turn, and leaves him standing confused at the corner. He may be harmless, but he is disgusting, and there’s no way he is getting in the car with her.
Later she sees him heading home carrying a Safeway bag which she knows contains a cherry pie and a liter of Pepsi… an afternoon snack for the Pie Man. “Poor fool,” she thinks full of pity. “I’m sorry for him, but I want nothing to do with him.”
She knows there are many people like him…indigent, handicapped. living on the edge of society with no one to help them. She thanks her lucky stars and mutters a prayer for the Pie Man.
She vows to buy him a pie and a Pepsi the next time she goes to the store. She will ring the doorbell and leave the package on the porch of the darkened house where he lives with his sister and their invalid mother.
The Pie Man
(First published 10/17/11)
