Behind the music...

Picture - Click here to hear the track

This guy comes up to me in Bedford high street and he asks if I have 95p for a bus journey to Luton. He's wearing an England football shirt, not the current one, but the one from the 1998 world cup and its pretty dirty. He has short brown hair and a tattoo on his neck. He looks really tired.

As soon as the words have left his mouth my mind starts racing in search for a quick witted, calm and confident response that will get him away from me so that I can continue on with my trek to TK Maxx which is now just in sight. Somewhere inside me I am compelled to at least do the man the decency of taking my headphones out of my ears which I do slowly and cautiously. I'm nervous, to be honest I feel uncomfortable and I cant shake the sceptical feeling inside me. This guy is joking right, a bus journey to Luton? I immediately assume the mind set that if I give him money, I'm caving in, that Im weak somehow and that he would be getting the better of me. I look at him carefully, tying to judge whether or not hes telling the truth, trying to judge if he's taking me for a ride. Does he think I'm some sort of mug? I briefly entertain the thought of telling him that I dont have any change, almost an impulsive response but its a lie, I know that I have a little compartment of loose change in my bag, loose change that Im always looking to get rid of.

I ask him what time his bus is leaving as if to test him and his sincerity and he launches straight into a speech about getting stranded in Bedford after coming over here for a job interview, he then says something about an argument with his girlfriend and trouble with his son. He has a son! The guy barely looks old enough to be at school. My heart is now in the balance, somewhere between, pity, sorrow, compassion and still a bit of scepticism. I feel the need to accelerate my decision, just because of the sheer awkwardness of the situation. This bloke has me on the ropes of conscience and I could go any which way. What I do next catches me completely off guard. Without thinking and maybe its because I'm a teacher I say to him, mate, I don't mind giving you 95p but is it really for a bus journey? As he looks straight at me I notice how blue his eyes are, and a reasonably large scar just above his left eyebrow. He simply says "yeah." And so I gave him a pound, and off he went. And off I went to TK Maxx, where I spent £15.99 on a pair of trousers that I did not need. The song "Picture" is about that guy.