Commuters and early morning shoppers bustle and hustle along the crowded sidewalked streets of Broadway and Wall, carrying patent leather briefcases or laden with bags from Tiara, J+R, and the Company Store.

A young woman in heels trips, falling to a knee like a newborn doe. A contemptuous snort, a barely held-back laugh, comes from the fat woman in front of me.

A man stops, bending down to ask if the young woman with her bags now spilled about her, is ok. Her head is bowed down, her long skirt spread out as if it were growing from the sidewalk up around her legs.

I walk on, now side by side with the fat woman, staring into her face, trying to see into her eyes, trying to see what type of person would find enjoyment in another's misfortune, trying to understand what has become of people today - then I realize that I didn't stop to help.