It was 6.45 am and I was in the street taking the washing to the outside laundry room when a man stopped me.

 
It was 6.45 am and I was in the street taking the washing to the outside laundry room when a man stopped me.
He was wearing a white towel, frayed jeans and he had no shoes on.
'Ma'am,' he said, 'you didn't lose these did you?'
I looked down and he was holding a pair of sunglasses, a style I wouldn't wear but that someone who liked snow skiing might.
'No,' I said, 'they're not mine,'
'Oh,' he said, looking at the glasses.
Then, he held up an empty packet that looked like it had held a television remote control.
'I was going to put them in here, ma'am, and give them back but I thought you might like them,'
I said thank you but no thank you.
Then he said-'What does this mean? and pointed to a word in French that was printed on the empty TV remote control packet.
'I'm not sure,' I said and then we both stood there for a few moments trying to work it out.
Then he offered me the glasses again.
I told him he should keep them because later on it would get sunny.
'Yes' ma'am,' he said, 'I guess so.'
Then he said thank you and told me to have a nice day.
I told him the same thing.

When I came back from the laundry room the man was sitting across the road, on the curb, staring up the street.
I came inside and told Kimberly about the man and asked if I should go and offer him a boiled egg, but by the time we had decided yes, we should offer him something the man was walking across the stretch of dirty red soil, where people take their dogs to shit, and down the hill toward the freeway.