Dayton, TN

He put the three dollars in my hand. I looked into his wallet, although I tried not to. Chuck was in a car. Looking down was normal, though not exactly polite. I looked away. It was all he had in his billfold. The words "No thank you", came out of my mouth. I know that they did because they were still in my ears. Chuck's beat up sedan had pulled away after stalling once. He was gone, back into the sea of strangers.
The blue payphone I was using was now behind me getting smaller,as my feet moved as mindlessly as cattle down the roadside. Three folded dollars coiled over themselves became damp in the sweat of my fingers. I still wanted to give them back. I always did. Chuck wanted to touch what I was doing. How do I refuse an offering without insulting the giver?
"What your doing is so great," he had said with a smile as he squinted up into the sun. It was unseasonably hot already. I was overtired, and had posion ivy where a hiker would rather not. Smiling was not something that I wanted to do as I listened to his untimed engine beg for more gas. Watching Chuck pick up the walk for the first time reminded me about the dream I was living. The walk was a woman I used to look at like like that. Bad days, bad moments, came but nothing to make me want to leave her had crossed my path. Still. It was refreshing to have a man I had never met look into my face and tell me how lucky I was to have 'someone' like that in my life. A town later before I settled in to finding a camp, Chuck's money bought the lady a gatorade, and a snickers.....and a smile.