OTHERS

There is a society that lives amongst us that we know very little about. The beings that comprise this society are visible but hardly ever noticed. You vaguely see them walking along the shoulder of the road carrying a nondescript bundle or sitting on a wood bench outside a mall or near a community park clutching a paper bag or in a crowd waiting to cross a busy intersection and a myriad of other locations where they are avoided or just ignored. And if and when by chance we do notice them we write them off as indigent, homeless, marginal losers. We make a tisk, tisk sound and mutter “what a shame” and make a passing promulgation that something should be done about “these” people-put them in shelters or somewhere. Occasionally we feel guilty about their situation. Mostly we are embarrassed by them. But they do not need our pity or charity.

This book is a collection of short stories about encounters with this society. They are referred to as Others.