The Hands of Bill - An Urban Gemologist

Bill looked about as comfortable as you can get on the streets, where he's made his home for the past 3 years, reclining on a box drinking a soda. After a minute or two of conversation Bill pulls out a small black pouch filled with his livelihood. The smallest scrapes of gold, clasps, links small but bright stones. The fallings from grace from the store fronts in the Jewelry District in Down Town Los Angeles. These bits are too small to be picked up or to even noticed and so are swept out to the sidewalk where Bill learns a living doing what others will not, seeing them and bothering to collect them. Bill tell us of some of his bigger finds including rubies, sapphires and diamonds and some being a couple of carats big. When he has collected enough scraps to matter he will then sell it back to a few jewelers he trusts. . It seemed that Bill is both well known and liked as two folks passing by stop and greet him. One bragging about Bill saying he knows his stuff more than a lot of the professionals working in the stores.

Done