I didn't look up from the words I was staring at, and not reading (none of them were as compelling as that question I kept hearing), until I finally heard the bus pull up to my stop, and there she was, coming back to the stop, walking as fast as she could without having to run, and getting in the line that was forming at the bus' front door.

All of the men in the line and all of the other men at the nearby bus stops paid no attention to her, even though she had just asked every single one of them out on a date. The women also ignored her. None of us called the police or mall security. None of us called one of those shelters for runaway teenagers. None of us even bothered to say to her, "If this is what you're going to do, don't do it in a crowded place in broad daylight, and don't do it at a bus stop. If any of us could afford you we wouldn't be riding the busses." We were all cowards that afternoon. We all let her get on the bus, so that she could go on to another bus stop and ask every male she could find who looked at least twelve years old: Do you want a date? Do you want a date? Do you want a date?