I recognized him as soon as he got off the Lake Merritt TRAB train. It was the same young brotha who always asks me for change as I waited at the Glen Park TRAB Station for the Blue Line train when I was on my way home from work. Lanky all over, even his eyes are long. Last time I saw him, he had on a green Polo shirt not long enough to cover the sag in his faded jeans. He seemed to be the same age as my students – sixteen or seventeen years old. He always had the same story: “Can you help me? I ran away from my group home so that I could see a friend. Now I’m trying to get back before curfew, but I don’t have enough money for the fare. Can you help me?”

He didn’t smell unhoused or seem like he was on drugs, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt. The first time, I gave him two dollars. The second time, I gave him a TRAB ticket with a couple dollars on it. But then, I watched him avoid paying the fare by walking out of the station through an emergency exit. So the third time, I told him, “I don’t have it, sorry man, I can’t help you.” This time when I was sitting on the marble bench waiting for the Green Line train on my way into The City, I turned my head away and put my nose in my book, avoiding eye contact.

But he came up to me anyway. He said, “Hey Miss, I just want to say…” I looked up, cocking my head to the side, making eye contact. “I just want to say,” he bent down to look me in the eye. He said, “Jesus loves you,” and held out his fist for me to give him a dap.

I’m not the praying type but I responded by tapping his fist with mine. “Thanks man.”

Then he said, “And he loves me too…” sauntering away, leaning back. It was then that I noticed his new shoes, stud earrings, and new haircut. Hoping that maybe he got involved with a progressive church, I watched in approval his head tipped back, long arms wagging, stepping onto the escalator and disappearing upward.

Christl Rikka Perkins is a bi-racial (Black/Japanese) writer living in Oakland, CA. She was published in American Fiction 17, God’s Cruel Joke, Half and One and the WriteNow!-SF Writers’ Workshop anthology, Essential Truths: The Bay Area in Color. Read more on her website.