When you see someone in trouble, do you want to help? How far do you take them?
The other night I was in Columbus, visiting family. I stepped out of the madness for a bit to do some retail therapy (mama needed new yoga pants), and when I got over to Old Navy I saw a girl sitting in front of the store on a bench, with her head in her hands. She looked like she was crying, so I went over and asked if she was ok, and got her story.
She had just had a fight with her boyfriend, who she just found out was fathering a child with a different girl. Just found out as in the day before. Her boyfriend did a drive by to shout some choice phrases at her as she stood there talking with me, and drove off. Left her there in front of a store, talking to me.
I kept talking to her, took her to a nearby coffeeshop to warm up, let her make a few calls from my cellphone to see if she could get a ride home. She couldn’t call her parents–she’d cut them off a few years before. She lived on the far west side of Columbus, in a bad part of town, far from where we were. In the end, I left her with a warm cup of coffee, feeling like I’d taken her partway and dropped her.
I didn’t give her a ride. I still feel horrible about it, but in the back of my mind I kept thinking that the whole thing could be a scam. I tried to feel better about it, thinking that I at least got her a cup of coffee and listened to her story, but I wonder if she got home ok. Columbus isn’t like Cleveland–the buses don’t run late at night, and I don’t know if her boyfriend ever came back.
Is a little kindness enough? Is it ok to take someone part of the way and hope they get home? God, I hope so, but my gut keeps saying something else.