Sharon is small,  five feet tall only, but fast. And strong. When she sees that poor man being beaten up, she runs to help.

She works nights at a department store stocking shelves, and some of the boxes are really big, and really heavy. It's pretty much like lifting weights. Therefore, she has a lot of strength in her arms.

She carries a big  sand and brown  striped canvas bag to work with her each night. It carries her meal in heavy plastic containers, Her quart sized water bottle, and a book.  She always reads at mealtime.

 She is just walking home in the morning after her shift, when she sees those two big brutes beating up on a poor old guy on the sidewalk. She runs at them, bag swinging.

The bag connects with the arm of the man wielding the bottle. He drops it and turns towards her.

"What the...." he yells. He considers attacking her too, but he sees her pull back her bag for another swing, and thinks better of it.

He runs away like the coward he is. He doesn't mind half killing a poor, sick old man, but he won't challenge anyone who is likely to put up a fight.

The second brute saw Sharon coming after him, and he takes off too.

As she kneels beside the man, she notices for the first time that there is a young woman a couple of feet away, talking on her cell phone.

By what she could hear, the woman was talking to Emergency services, but she obviously doesn't know where she is, to direct them.

Sharon motions to her to give over the phone.  the woman gives it to her.

Sharon explains the situation, and gives their exact location, and requests an ambulance. "It's on it's way," She said.

She hands back the phone, as a lady  with a yellow flower in her hair comes out of the apartment building near them.

"What happened?" She asks the two other women.

"Two thugs were following you, and this man tried to stop them. "They beat him up, said the younger woman. We called an ambulance, it'll be here. soon.

Sharon took a St. John's Ambulance course through her work this year, so she is fully rated in first aid. She takes water bottle out, with a box of tissues, wets one, and starts to wipe the blood off the man's face.

Just then, the ambulance comes screaming to the curb.

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Author guidance for This story

This is a story about the stories we tell ourselves about the other people around us. It begins with Anna, who has noted various people around her who are "familiar strangers." She is always curious but never willing to intrude on their privacy to get to know them, so she has thought up stories in her head about them. She assumes that they, too, have wondered about her and made up their own stories about who she is and what is happening in her life. *Each chapter should be from the perspective of a particular person, set out as the chapter title or at the beginning in bold. The chapter should both tell a bit of the "real" story of that person from their own perspective and include their thoughts on the story of a "familiar stranger" in their life. To begin with the stories should branch out around Anna with the people she sees, creating a web. Multiple chapters can tell different stories of the same "familiar stranger." The point is to contrast a person's private life with what could be imagined about them by others they see in public. Characters so far: ~Anna - woman who has just started wearing red and a flower in her hair, seen on the bus and an elevator ~Rodger - man seen on bus with groceries, park, graveyard, coffee shop ~Josee - waitress uniform says Sally, waitress in coffee shop, originally from Montreal, lets Charlie stay longer and does not make him pay for coffee ~Mick - police officer in coffee shop, Newfoundlander ~Charlie - old drunk found in coffee shop, wounded in some ways, educated voice ~Isla - tortoise shell hair band and Scottish red hair, Celtic cross, librarian, called Morag by Charlie, and Red by Tom (her boyfriend?), hard to get to know, green eyes, uses strawberry shampoo ~Constantine - doorman with mustache and from Europe ~Megan - seen on bus, young, loves Bryan, looking for a job ~Beatrice - on elevator, cheap perfume, always well-dressed if out of fashion ~James - seen on elevator, crooked tie, smokes ~Jenny - likes plants and works in an office ~Bryan - new, ambitious, works in an office ~Rory - James' manager ~Janet - works in library (eats lunch in the park, likes crime novels?) ~Tom(Thomas) King - calls Isla (his girlfriend?) Red, RN ~Melissa - mother of Matty, works for Mrs. Bentington ~Mrs. Bentington - grouchy woman, employer of Melissa, demands high heeled shoes ~Adam - portrait artist in the park, Southern accent, student. ~Mr. Brown - Beatrice's boss, red hair, lawyer ~ice cream vendor - in the park, wedding ring, missing pinky ~jogger - in the park, dark skin, shaved head, in good shape and young ~Andrea - on the bus, busy, works in an office ~Stacey - woman Bryan was seeing, trying to make her ex-boyfriend jealous, very fake-seeming ~Katja Elena Novikova - immigrant, accountant who cannot find a good job, model for Adam's art class, refuses to be an au-pair ~doctor - works in the shelter Charlie goes to ~bus-station manager - lets Charlie have a locker ~Alyssa - research assistant for law firm, blond, writing a novel ~Rebecca - waitress in the coffee shop, father is suffering from dementia ~Morag - woman in Charlie's past ~laundromat woman - glares at Charlie ~men following Anna - one recognized by Charlie, they beat Charlie ~Sharon - works in a grocery store, small, carries a tote bag, attacked the men who attacked Charlie -Melanie - nurse working with Tom, in her 40s, numerous grandchildren, blond hair

updated Dec 4 '08 by CheshireGrin