where are your manners?

i just took a quick respite from work to walk down the road to the newsstand to look for last week's issue of Billboard magazine.

while meandering down the walk of fame, past the crowded bus stops, the hokey souvenir shops and the alleys reeking of piss and shit, stepping on the names of those once adored, i passed a homeless man sitting against a building. he asked for the spare change, as per usual, but instead of the oft-heard 'got any change? got any change? got any change?' he made it personal.
'do you have any spare change so i can get some dinner tonight?'
i kept walking, eyes straight ahead, but decided on my way back that i would give him a dollar. for some reason he got me.

flash forward 3 minutes to my arrival at the newsstand. i ask the man at the register, who appears to be writing music, if he has any back issues of the magazine i am looking for. he does not, so i buy this week's issue, on whose cover there is a photo of a guitar case filled with money. "how nice would it be to have a guitar case full of money?" he asks me.
"so nice" i reply.
"what's the first thing you'd buy?"
"a nice vacation."
"oh yeah? where would you go?"
"mmm. africa."
"oh? why africa?"
"well i've always wanted to go to africa, it's just so far and not something i can afford right now."
"where in africa would you go? south africa?"
"well, i think it would be really great to climb mount kilimanjaro someday. so you know, some tanzania action."
"ah! you're an adventurous one! i've always like girls with a little bit of a sense of adventure. what is your name?"
"jessica"
"hi jessica, i'm edward" :shakes hands:
"nice to meet you, edward. thank you!"
"thank YOU, jessica"

after this lovely interaction, i power-walked back in the direction i came. i was feeling good, even after having just spent $7.67 on a magazine [but edward threw in 2 cents for me. what a nice guy.]. i soon saw my homeless man up ahead on the right. i separated my two dollar bills in my pocket so that i wouldn't accidentally give him both. heh. as i was the only one passing him at that moment, i thought he would ask me for change, i would whip out a whole dollar from my pocket, gently place it into his grubby hands, he would give me a huge toothy smile, thank me profusely, maybe a "god bless you," and i would be on my way.

instead:
i approach him and he glances my way. he doesn't ask me for anything, but i've already started fumbling in my pocket, so i hand him money he hasn't requested. he holds his cigarette in one hand, takes my dollar in the other, and immediately goes back to what he was doing. smoking and staring at the ground.

i don't even think he looked me in the eye. no thank you, no "god bless," not even a mumble that i could then try to decipher. nothing.

i kept walking, kind of mad at this homeless, moneyless man for not thanking me. i continued walking, trying to understand why he had seemed so ungrateful, when i looked to my left and saw what was most like human feces sitting in the dirt next to a tree.
awesome.
i just can't win.