One for the Angels

There was a boy asleep outside the shop. Or at least it looked like a boy. He was curled up inside a big sleeping bag, a gray beanie shoved over his head. His face was pillowed underneath his arm, and he was making these soft snuffling noises that made me feel like I was witnessing something private.

All around him, people were walking by, paying no attention to him. It was almost like I was the only one who could see him, and it sort of unnerved me. I quickly went inside the café, peeling off my jacket.

“Did you see that boy out there?” I asked Hannah, my coworker, just to make sure I wasn’t going entirely crazy.

She shrugged. “Yeah, so? We get homeless people all the time.”

“But none of them ever sleep directly outside the shop,” I said, trying to keep my voice light. “Won’t that make us look bad?”

Hannah looked over her shoulder, checking for nonexistent people. She and I, along with a boy a year or two younger than us named Tim, were the only ones who worked this shift. Hannah was technically the “manager,” but in reality she didn’t do squat. “I think we’ll be okay,” she said condescendingly. “C’mon. We got work to do.”

I attempted to go about my day like I normally would, but I found myself glancing out the window to where that purple sleeping bag was still on the ground outside. I tried to see if the boy was awake or not, but my vision was obscured.

I had no idea why this was bothering me so much. Hannah was right; there were dozens of homeless people crawling throughout the city; why was this guy different? Maybe it was because he looked my age, or maybe because he was so close in proximity, or maybe because it was cold.

Either way, when my lunch break came, I poured a fresh cup of coffee and grabbed an old-fashioned doughnut before going outside. A blast of cold air greeted me instantly and I shivered, wishing I’d remembered to grab my jacket.

The boy was awake, which made me even more nervous than before. I’d planned to just leave the coffee and doughnut next to him, so he’d find it when he woke up. But nope, here he was, leaning against the wall.

Well, here goes nothing. “Hi,” I said. He turned his head and looked up at me, and his eyes were brown. I swallowed. “Uh, I noticed you didn’t have anything to eat, so I brought you coffee and a doughnut. I didn’t know how you took your coffee, obviously, since we just met, so I put in some sugar and milk. Not a lot though. And, um, I just brought a plain doughnut too. I hope that’s okay. Sorry.” I realized that I was rambling, so I shut my mouth and held out the food.

The good thing was he took the cup and doughnut from me. The bad thing was he didn’t say anything, instead preferring to take a sip of the coffee. Somehow, he managed not to burn his tongue, which was strange because it was hot.

“I hope it’s good. It’s not like you have anything else. Oh, shit, that was rude. I’m sorry, I just meant that I hope it’s good because, you know, it would suck if the only thing you had to eat was something really bad. Our baker is kind of a dick, but he makes good stuff, so.” The boy still didn’t answer.

My lunch break was only twenty minutes and I knew I should’ve really been eating something, but instead I just kept talking. “I’m Juno. Like the goddess, I guess. The Roman one, not the Greek one. That was Hera. I mean, I guess it’s cool to be named after her, but she was kind of a bitch. She possessed Hercules and made him kill his family and stuff. So I like to tell people I was named after the movie Juno. The one with Ellen Page and Michael Cera? She was a real badass, so.”

The boy looked at me for a long moment, taking another bite of his doughnut. And then I decided it was probably best to leave. “Okay, well, bye,” I said awkwardly. “Enjoy.”

When I came back inside, rubbing my arms to warm them up, Hannah called, “Feeding the homeless, I see.”

“It’s called being a good person. You should try it.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Hannah threw a dishrag at me. I caught it and stuck my tongue out at her. “What’s his name?”

“Don’t know. He didn’t speak to me.”

“Maybe you scared him.”

“Maybe you should shut up,” I retorted.

“What if he’s here tomorrow? Are you gonna go back?”

“Maybe,” I said again. “We’ll see.”