New Friends: Buck

I met Buck today.
I was driving around looking for work, and saw him sitting up against a wall, holding a joint, a drink of some sort in a paper bag beside him, looking hopeless and unloved. I did my customary wave and continued on what I was doing.
After another false trail of finding employment, I was ready to move on... But then I remembered what lonely feels like, and how it feels to have someone pay attention to you, and I decided to spend a couple of minutes with him.
He seemed a little startled that I was sitting next to him, but he offered a weather-beaten hand and introduced himself. "I'm Buck." (I think that's what his name was, but it was hard to tell through his rather copious beard.) "Nice to meet you, I'm Isaac! How've you been?" Buck isn't the talkative type: I think life on the streets has taken the wind out of his sails long ago. "Oh, so so, just been walking around..." I realized with shock that this was probably the entire story of his day.
I tried to think of more to talk about, but with a reply like that I wasn't sure what else would be comfortable to talk about. "Nice weather today," I noted unnecessarily. "Yeah, yeah it is...." He looked up at the clearing sky with a look of partial surprise, as if the thought hadn't occurred to him. I offered him a piece of my Hershey's with Almonds... "No thanks, I'm not really a chocolate fan." We sat, the silence between us slightly unsettling. Buck lit up his joint, which up until this point he had held in quivering hands.
I stayed a few moments longer, then, with an excuse and a hurried smile, left him sitting where he was, staring blankly at the gathering clouds. As I continued on my way, I thought about my life, the stability, the happiness, the hope....