Every day, the Man wakes up and pours himself a cup of coffee. Then he showers, brushes his teeth, puts on a suit, and leaves his ritzy apartment. He then cruises down New York’s busiest streets and arrives at work. On his lunch break four hours later, he walks down to the nearest Starbucks and buys a caramel macchiato and a blueberry muffin. Every day he sees the same homeless man across the street, begging on the corner of Fourth and Stark, and every day he ignores the small Voice in the back of his mind. Go talk to him, it says. But the man pushes it away and heads back to work. At the end of the day he drives in thick traffic back to his apartment, reads a book or two, and falls asleep. This is his life. Get up. Go to work. Ignore the Voice. Go to sleep. Month after month, year after year, the Man runs his small, average life. Until one day, the Homeless Man is gone. The Man is surprised, so surprised, in fact that he listens to the Voice telling him to go talk to the custodian raking the fall leaves on the sidewalk across the street. “Excuse me,” says the Man, “What happened to the Homeless gent sitting right here?” The custodian pulls his beanie over his ears and says, “Well, hate ta break it to ya, but he died of cold and starvation. The cops found the body this morning. Guess it’s bound to happen to all of us one of these days in this cold, lonely world.” The Man steps back in numb shock and sits on a nearby bench. “But… he was so young. He could’ve had a wife. He might have had kids. If only someone had paid attention…” the Man stops when he realizes what he just said. The custodian hands the Man a tissue and joins him on the bench. “Well, there’s nothing we can do now,” he says. And the Man goes home with that thought in his head. There’s nothing I can do. And the Man gets an idea. Instead of going to work that morning, he calls in sick, then jumps in his car. It doesn’t take him long to find what he’s looking for. The Man parks on the corner of Sixth and Lexington, then strolls up to a woman on the side of the road, holding a sign that says Need Money, God Bless. The Man gathers his courage and says,
"Would you like a cup of coffee?"