I step backwards, and he steps forward.

He is pointing towards his outstretched hand and a few loose coins inside it.

Large yellow and brown teeth form part of a sad and pleading smile, on a face lined by time and failure. It's a smile this man has smiled a thousand times before, and a thousand times it has failed.

And yet still he smiles.

Rejection is the river which runs through him, it’s all he has ever known, and all he will ever know. From me too as I turn my back to him and walk away, then stop again, looking back to see if I’ve swum clear from the whirlpool of his sinking ship, and watch him walk towards a group of men, ambling down an incline, as they head towards the entrance, his hand out once more.

2/3