This is an Earth Day contest story. Please vote.
Homeless and destitute, prostituting herself for money to survive, a woman collects bottles and cans, while making friends.
*
"Hi," said the man to Susan passing by her in the alleyway, while staring.
Accustomed to men staring at her, such an unusual sight to behold, men don't normally see a woman who looks like her, especially in an alleyway as dirty as this, collecting bottles and cans.
"Hi," said Susan turning her attention away from what she was doing to size him up with a streetwise look to see if he was a threat or a danger to her. Immediately accessing him as harmless, she went about her business of picking through the trash for bottles and cans.
"What's a good looking woman like you," he said stopping dead in his tracks to stare at her, "doing here in this dirty, rat infested alley digging through the trash?"
She turned again to look at him. Typical of him to not make eye contact with her, as if his eyes were lasers burning two holes in her shirt, instead he stared at the impressions her nipples made in her bra through her blouse. Feeling the heat of his stare, she folded her arms across her breasts to preserve the last bit of her modesty, something else already stolen from her, when first homeless. Knowing men in the way she does, no doubt, he thought that her high beams made an appearance just from the sight of him, but he'd be wrong. She was just cold.
"A new line to go with the times," she said with a chuckle, "what's a good looking woman doing in a dirty, rat infested alley digging through the trash? I'm collecting bottles, cans, and making friends. I've already collected some bottles and cans," she said holding up her plastic bag full of bottles and cans, "and now, just having met you, I made a friend. Actually, I'm just doing my fair share to clean up the neighborhood," she said with a sad laugh, unable to continue the pretense.
"Are you an environmentalist? Are you one of those people helping everyone to conserve in the hopes of saving the planet and donating whatever you collect to your cause? Global warming and all of that," he said with a wave of his hand, as if he needed his hand to punctuate his stupidity, "is that it?"
Obviously thinking that her feeble attempts to help save the planet were fruitless, he looked at her and laughed. No doubt, wanting to believe that she was someone that she wasn't, wanting to believe that she was more than his perception of her and she was, of course, perhaps he had trouble with the idea that a beautiful woman could be homeless, but she was.
"An environmentalist? Hardly," she said with a laugh, "I'm unemployed. I'm homeless. I'm tired. I'm cranky and I'm hungry," she said with sadness and with a bit of anger to her voice. "Having already swallowed my pride, no longer too proud to beg, I do whatever I can for a few dollars, even if it's digging through yucky trash for a few coins collected from discarded bottle and can deposits."
In the way that he looked at her, as if she was a decadent dessert, it wasn't her desperation or the fact that she was unemployed, homeless, tired, or hungry that stopped him in his tracks, no doubt, but her admitted need for a few dollars, along with the fact that she was stunningly beautiful.
"Always one to help the homeless, I'll gladly give you a few dollars," he said with a smile and a sly, unabashed pause, "for a feel of your tits."
When she turned to look at him, he walked over to her, while looking up the alley, before looking down the alley.
"Pardon?"
"You help me with a handful and I'll help you with a handout, so to speak," he said in his attempt to make light of her desperate situation, while trying to take advantage of her. He covered his insensitivity to her sad struggle with a shrug and a nervous laugh.
"I see," she said resting her bag of bottles and cans in the street. "For a feel of my tits, you'll give me money? Is that it?" Obviously, something that hadn't occurred to her before, that she had something to sell that someone would buy, she looked down to where he was staring at her tits.
"Yeah, sure, you have great rack. Definitely, I'll give you some money for a feel of your big boobs."
"How much?" She looked at him, as if he was a potential buyer at a yard sale.
"Two bucks."
"Two bucks to touch these?" She moved her folded arms from her breasts and stuck out her tits more. "Trust me, the feel of these breasts are worth much more than two dollars, Mister," she said cupping her breasts in her palms and lifting them through her blouse and bra, before looking at him with the flair of a Supermodel with a bad attitude.
"It's just a feel," he said taking another step closer.
"You a cop?" Susan surveyed the alley again to see if anyone was coming.
"Me a cop? No, I'm not a cop. I only wish I had a more exciting job," he said with a laugh. "I'm an accountant for an insurance company. Boring, but at least I have a job in this tough economy. So, what do you say? I'll give you two bucks for a feel of your tits."
"Yeah, sure, why not?" Immediately doing the math in her head, two bucks was equal to collecting 40 cans and bottles, a huge amount to collect for such a small amount of money. "But two bucks will only buy you a ten second feel of one of my tits."
A victim of circumstances in dire need of money, having dropped so low so fast, she was now relegated to being groped in a back alley for money by a stranger. A dangerous game to play, especially if coming across the wrong man, someone who wanted more for less, for two dollars, she took the chance. If she wasn't so hungry, she'd be saddened, embarrassed even, that a feel of her one of breasts was only worth two bucks, but just as her destitution hardened her exterior, her desperation softened her modesty.
"Agreed," said the man looming closer.
Immediately, he reached out his hand to feel her breast and Susan took a step back.
"The money first, Mister."