Reuben

This is Reuben, the young man I met on the morning I blipped his buddy--the young mystery man I've been looking for since February 2nd. Reuben didn't remember me, but when I reminded him of what his friend said--that he'd like to be a model for Michelangelo--he remembered that. "Oh yeah," Reuben told me tonight, "I thought that was an amazing thing to say. I had just met that guy the night before you ran into us at the recycle. So I'm thinkin' holy shit, what a line; I should use that myself sometime. I think he made it up. I think he's that kind of guy, he thinks that way."

I told Reuben I went to the art school, showed them the pictures, and asked if they would hire his friend as a model, and they said they would consider it, if he had a cell phone and would show up on time and be reliable. "No shit," Reuben said. "That's beautiful." Reuben hasn't seen the young man much since that morning, and he doesn't know his name, but Reuben has an email address, and he asked me to send tonight's pictures, of him and his friend Danny, and also the pictures of the Michelangelo kid, so if they meet sometime, they can go to the library and look at the pictures. "We love seeing pictures of ourselves. It's like if you can see a picture of yourself, you sort of feel more real, you know. And you never know. Maybe we'll be famous one day. Or maybe you'll be a famous photographer, and our faces will be in a gallery or some shit like that. That would be cool."

I asked Reuben and Danny if they're living in the street. Danny said yes; Reuben said, "Sometimes. It depends. Sometimes we get a place to sleep inside. It's not important. It's all OK. Tonight we ran into a guy who asked if he could buy us a couple beers, and we said we'd rather have chocolate milk. So that's where we got this." He hefted his half-finished quart of chocolate milk.

The woman whose hands I blipped yesterday has read the blip and your comments, and she replied: "Gonna have to chew on that for a spell, not in the habit of being at center of discussion, always seen myself as more of a support structure unit...like a beam, behind the drywall. I have read through the comments [on the Blip] and the sympathy is hard for this humble girl to handle. If it helps others to not feel alone or less likely to lose heart, I'll try to own being cause and catalyst."

This is on my One Street, taken about 7 p.m.