‘Nah, I’m telling ya buddy, there’s nobody in town at this time apart from bums, trust me I bin here for a couple of months now,’ three smooth suits walking down the dirty streets of Torquay, the louder, and equally larger, of the three had walked eight steps from spearmint rhino without falling over and announced “it’s a new record!” He was by no means a lightweight, it had taken nine pints to get him to this stage whilst his two friends, slim, blonde and sensible, sipped the four beers between them, it was the cheap option.
They walked into a clearing, a decorative cobblestone pattern in the shape of a circle, lined with three raised benches on each side and peaceful flowers sleeping under a clear, glass roof. A single, weak figure, identifiable only by the silhouette of a woolly beard protruding from a young face, leaned forward, he was ready for his big moment and overbalanced onto one of the two thin blonde men, staining his suit with dirt, naturally the man in the suit remained quiet and let a friend with more words in his mouth speak for him,
‘Whoa buddy, whaddya think ya doing,’ the bearded man remained modest; he stumbled around, but kept his look fixed on the dirty cigarette butts on the ground in front of him.
‘Please sir, can I just have a bit of spare change, I need a drink, drink takes away the pain,’ the boldest of the group chuckled, his belly heaved up and down in a way that it was suited to,
‘Well asking for a drink is gonna give you more pain, ya see buddy, ya can't just bump into one of my friends, asking for liquor money, looking all sorry for yourself, we were having a pleasant evening and don’t want to be bothered by the scum of the streets’ his chuckle turned into a full blown laugh echoing throughout the streets, bouncing off harsh cobblestones and infecting the nearby shop windows shrouded in shadow,
‘Just because I’m poor doesn’t mean I’m week, and I can prove it,’ the large man was willing to challenge a homeless man in order to look big to his friends,
‘Whaddya have in mind?’ the bulky man asked,
‘I bet ya two fifty, I could push you from the centre of this decorative circle to the edge’ the homeless man said, a tone of anger raising in his voice,
‘Your on, you see your up against a university star quarterback, and I’m gonna be keeping my two pounds fifty,’ the large man boasted as he took off his jacket,
‘two hundred and fifty pounds,’ the begger corrected, ‘if your such a big spender you can handle it,’ the large man gave no answer, just squatted in the centre of the circle and shook the begger’s hand when he came nearby, challenge accepted, the begger was precise, he picked off any stones or bits of rubbish within his circle, he made it his domain, he even rubbed his hands against the soles of the large mans feet, ‘I don’t want you winning because you have chewing gum on your shoe’ was his only explanation, he got the third suit to give the count down to start, and then, as if the bulky football star was on ice, he slid him to the edge of the circle and out with shame.
Once the three suits were gone and the begger had taken a comfy seat, he threw away the slab of butter he had concealed in his hand, and took of his beard, it had been a good haul, a shining leather wallet lifted from an easy bump into a blonde man, watch removed from a handshake, mobile phone pocketed as he pushed the fat man from the circle and two hundred and fifty pounds for doing so, it was a good haul, unfortunately a war cry from down the hill enlightened him to the fact that the company had discovered his scam and the con artist decided to invest in a taxi before the mark could stumble back.