Please sir, can you Help me?

The moment that Mitchel stepped out of the office and locked the door behind him, he heard a distant whimpering. He quickly shoved the paycheck into his back pocket with a certain delicate care that he had never shown a living thing, and he called out, “hello?” The whimpering ceased for a moment, then it returned louder still. Followed by a bark and crying, undoubtedly from a dog.
Mitchel cleared his throat, then went off in the direction of the noise. He passed by Bob without taking notice, then he found himself in the center of the construction site. A large hole was in the ground before him, scooped out by big machines and filled with scraps of metal and used lumber. Beneath the twisted pieces was a large black dog; two of its hind legs were stuck under heavy items. Without thinking, Mitchel descended. On his hands and heels, he controlled a slide down the steep hole.
“Don’t worry, buddy, I’m coming,” he reassured the pet.
Mitchel got to the bottom, quickly located the problem, and acted. He lifted a long piece of wood that pinned the dog down. It was heavy, with multiple other hefty items atop it. Followed by struggling grunts, and straining, the dog was given enough room to shimmy out and escape. The dog scraped up and out of the hole, then he limped away.
The moment that Mitchel released his grip on the wood, it slapped back down forcefully and caused a shift among the other items. An ‘I’ shaped iron beam slid his way and before Mitchel could get out of the hole, it locked him down to the ground with an aggressive clunk. Mitchel was stunned for a moment and when he returned to full lucidity, he was properly stuck, but more distressing to Mitchel, his paycheck had slipped out of his back pocket when he fell. It caught his eye immediately. Only a few feet from him, he reached for it. Straining and twisting his body, stretching and pulling his torso to reach. No luck. It was too far and just beyond his grasp.
“Oh! Well that’s just great! Just what I get for helping a sad old dog,” Mitchel mumbled to himself in frustration.
“Are you okay in there?” Bob called down.
“No, I’m stuck, come get me out of here!”
“You know, I really wish that I could help you, but I just can’t,” said Bob from atop the hole. Mitchel craned his neck to see him, remembering the homeless man that he neglected; he had nothing nice to say, yet.
“Oh, that’s rich.”
“No, that is Karma.” Bob took some pleasure in this.
“I don’t believe in Karma,” Mitchel said, stubbornly.
“Well, it sure believes in you.” Bob laughed, cracking his dehydrated lips.
“Ok, ok,” Mitchel said, “I helped the dog out of here though, that has got to count for something.”
“True, but you left me without a second thought. Karma has a funny way of working.”
“Well of course a homeless man would think that. It couldn’t be your fault for ending up here, gotta blame it on Karma.”
“There you would be wrong. I was an untruthful man, and now no man looks my way. Karma has had its turn with me, and I think I’ve paid for my actions tenfold. But at least I accept the person that I was. I made a mistake, but it doesn’t mean that I can’t do any good now.”
Then Bob jumped down the hole, stripping layers away from his sock on the hard gravel, and slowed down at the base.
“Thank you sir,” Mitchel said.
But Mitchel might have spoken too soon. Dust around Bob settled and when Mitchel was able to see him once again, Bob was holding the cheque in his hand. He fingered it in the air, and seemed to be thinking.
“Damn you! You see, this is why I didn’t help you. Humans are greedy, and take whatever they can get their hands on.” Mitchel struggled under the iron beam.
“Indeed…I’ve taken much that wasn’t mine in life. I went to jail for it, and I would like to help you but you have yet to ask me for help.”
“What do you mean?”
“The dog whimpered to get back to its owners, I begged to be relieved of my cold and lonesome existence, but you…What do you need help with? Why do you want to get out of here?”
Mitchel thought for a moment, unmoving, not that he could either way, but after a moment he said, “Please sir, can you help me? My mother is sick and she needs me.”
Without another word, Bob helped Mitchel get out from under the heavy mess, and they clambered up the hole together. He returned the cheque and wished him luck. Mitchel gave Bob his shoe and went on his way.