I was out for a jog late at night. Started at 10.30pm and ran nearly 4 miles before turning around and heading back home. Traffic was thankfully sparse. Necklace road is quite peaceful on a week night, sprinkling of people, mostly guys. All these guys were in pairs, sitting close together - just made me wonder.
I stopped close to the rail tracks to answer a phone call and the next thing I know, I've got cops barking at me. Apparently they were afraid I would commit suicide!!! I started jogging back home and the cops followed me in their jeep for a mile - took them a while to figure out I was just a health freak and not some crazy nut who goes out on jogs at midnight - well....
Closer to home, a woman started running behind me, she kept wailing about something. She was unkempt, looked very poor and distraught. She was crying and shouting at me to stop. I had to make a quick choice. I've had some scary experiences late at night - people claiming they needed help or asking for change and then things turned ugly. So I acted out of instinct and just kept running.
Sometimes, I'm ashamed at how quickly I turn away from people who need help - because I assume that they're trying to scam me. Is it really that difficult to trust people? I remember this one instance in Melbourne - a guy (who I assumed was a beggar), came up to me and asked me for change cos he had to make a phone call. At first, I thought, this is just another druggy out for some easy money. On second thought, I figured, what the heck, handed him a 50c coin and walked away. The guy shouts out, walks up to me and says, "Sorry, I just wanted change, thanks for helping me out. Here, you take this $2 coin" and pressed it into my hand.
