Intersection of Five Strangers

Last night as I was walking to my car, something caught my eye. In the middle of the street, a man lay unconscious on the ground. Cars whizzed by this organic speedbump. One thought entered my mind -- Is he alright? Three of us converged. A young Latino man and a man from Bolivia and myself. The unconscious man's right hand clutched a large, green plastic bag. 30 feet away, the hipsters outside the nightclub and patrons at the taco stand appeared to be oblivious to the man on the street. Together, the three of us lifted the invertebrate-like body off the ground. The man slowly began to regain consciousness as we approached the sidewalk. A thick, sticky substance coated my hands. The bag he clutched, his coat, everything was sticky. For a fleeting moment I wondered what it was. The headlights from the stopped cars exposed the color of the substance. Red. As soon as we set him down on the steps, I called 911. The dazed man began to regain consciousness. His kept rubbing his left knee, but grayish hair was matted with blood. I asked him a series of simple questions. Greer was his name. From South Carolina. Came to California in 1978, born in 1942. I asked him what happened and he said, "I got hit by a car!" A fifth man walked up. "I'm the guy that ran over something on the road." He had turned and then found a parking lot before walking over. The old man had a smaller bag in his left hand. Inside it, a coke and a bottle of water. Paramedics arrived. They rolled up his left pant leg to reveal knee swollen to the size of a cantelope. "Don't take me anywhere. I just wanna die", the exasperated man grunted to the paramedic. The police came. Questions were asked. An ambulance came. The man disappeared into the night. Who was he? How did he get to be where is? He had a nice dress shirt and watch on, yet he carried a large trash bag that appeared to be
mix of cans and possibly some belongings. Was he a casualty of the recession? A war veteran? A previous child molester that was not an outcast in society? Convicted felon? I didn't know and may never know. Would I have still helped him?