A Dialogue on the Stoop
A dialogue I just had with my buddy, J.J. follows.
J.J. is in his mid forties, has been homeless for a long time and lives from the proceeds of collecting cans. Tonight he stopped by to tell me he'd found $135 worth of cans....but he can't cash them in until tomorrow. He was psyched. I am dubious because I know a hundred and thirty five things could happen to either he or his cans between now and when he gets to cash them in.
Anyhow...Our conversation turned to the recent "cleanup" of the camp at Laurelhurst. THere's so much to say and I have nothing to say.
“There all moving back to Laurelhurst. You know?”
Yep. I tried to tell the city people of how useless it was...
“This guy moved down next to me down there behind the empty lot...Before that everybody’s been cool to me. Leave me alone.”
Good. That’s good. Is alone the best way to be?
“When you are living like me, you don’t want no drama with nobody and the best way to have no drama is to be left alone.”
I get it.
“But this dude today moved down in between me and Carl. He put up one of those covers, you know? Like a pop up and starts setting up his whole damn house. Not 30 minutes later a dude comes out and says, ‘you got to get out of here.’ and starts yelling some nasty shit for a while. I told this dude...’It’s cause you bring your whole damn house down here when you ain’t got a house. If you live on a parking strip, you live with a parking strip worth of stuff.”
That sounds tough.
“C’mon, John, it ain't tougher to get rid of your extra shit than to have all of the shit kicked out of you.”
I don’t doubt that.
“Anyway, this dude said, ‘I’m just going to cry...everywhere I go I just get told I can’t be there. I just got to lay down and figure it out.’ So...he’s going back to Laurelhurst because it’s the best he’s known.”
And that’s the cycle right?
“It’s like the city knows exactly what’s going to happen aint it? They just shake the sheets to see what bugs will fall off and the rest of us have to scatter, find a corner, and fight to be left the fuck alone. Pardon my language, John. I know you got kids.”
It’s cool. They know how I feel about all this.
“If I'm so dirty, but there's no bed for me, why can’t I just have two nights in a hotel when they got to clean the camp I live in?”
Makes sense to me...
“We all just looking for a place to be left alone.”