Nick's Journal
2007-09-29 17:25:42 (UTC)

Homeless People & Children

allow me to impart upon you a little conversation i had
right before i was about to enter into an interview with one
of the top litigation firms in our city.
"yo, hey. what's up man."
"not much...bout to interview."
"cool...hey, man, you mind if i hit you up on that coca-cola
thing we were talking about the other day?"
"the what?....oh, oh, oh...nawh man...i just said that i
KNEW people who did coke, not where you could get it."
then from behind me i heard the interviewer,
"yes, how are you...thank you so much for taking the time to
interview me"
such is the life of a law student.

so anyhow. the other day i was riding home on the bus.
it's fucking 9:15 at night. i'm tired, i'm hungry and i
just want a seat on the bus. at 9:35 i'm realizing that i'm
not going to get a seat on the bus because it's fucking late.
when it finally arrives it's jam-packed...with homeless
people. normally the night crew is my favorite bunch of
despondent double-shifters trying desperately to grab just a
hope of shut-eye before the next grueling bout of grubbing
for money to irk out a living hits them in their puffy,
sleep-deprived faces.
in other words. it's quiet as a motherfucking cemetery up
in that bus.
not this night. for some reason it was packed with filthy
homeless people. as i was sandwhiched in between a guy who
reeked of bourbon and another guy who kept on scracthing his
head just above the ear so vehemently i thought it was going
to start spewing blood, i eyed an open seat.
it was a window seat with an (apparently homeless) woman in
a nasty windbreaking staring out at the window muttering
sweet little nothings to appease the voices in her head.
i went up to her and asked her if i could scoot in; she
pretended as if she didn't understand me.
my bag was fucking tearing my shoulder apart so i started
gesturing wildly that she empathetically had to get up this
very second or something bad was going to happen.
she instantly sprang up, her wild deer-in-the-headlights
eyes scanning the bus nervously and i pounced for the
opening. she, realizing her folly, looked to close the gap,
i made it. at the expense of practically tearing my groin
in half.
i sat there, my middle section hurting and my right thigh
screaming in pain.
and she smelled of urine. no...she WAS urine. as far as i
was concerned i was sitting next to a bucket of piss. then
they all (the homeless people) got off at the church.
this is kind of odd...does the church only let homeless
people in once in a while? i mean why were they all there
this one night and not the others?
seems cruel if they do.

and then the other morning i was on the bus (it seems most
of my life is played out on public transportation) and i was
lookking out the window. mmy bus passes through this sort
of daycare/school place for children. i always enjoy seeing
the parents dropping off their children at school.
the kids always look so happy and the parents look so happy,
everyone just looks so happy. i really like kids, i can
definitely see how they bring joy into peoples lives, i mean
they just don't have any worries, and maybe...for the few
hours you get with them out of your busy don't
have any either.
so then the bus kept on going and passed the second daycare.
which had a car in it. i gasped (involuntarily) as i saw a
subaru which had plowed THROUGH the bushes and THROUGH the
fence into what looked to be the playground area of the
even worse, i saw a two women wailing hysterically. and the
bus rolled on.
so there i was sitting in the law library, trying my best to
work on my constitutional law paper, when i realized there
was no way. so i packed my shit and decided to walk home in
the nice weather.
i finally made it to the daycare and actually found one of
the two women who had been wailing earlier.
"hey...i drove by earlier on the bus and saw what happened.
is everything okay?"
my stomach knotted up at the thought that it wouldn't be.
"yeah..yeah.." she flapped her hands to her side so that the
rake she was using to rake in the mulch and dishevelled
remains of the bushes fell to her side, "no children were
out yet..." she looked at the park, "we're moving the
playground to the back."
i noted that that was a great idea and breathed a sigh of
relief. as i continued walking home i passed the second
daycare/school were the kids were outside, enjoying (or
agonizing over) whatever box lunch their parent had made for
them that morning.
i watched them flit around in between tables, wheeling and
dealing funions for string-cheese, pudding for peanut butter
crackers. i watched some just running around with that
boundless energies that only kids seem to naturally have.
and then i finished my walk home.