Homeless

As the October moon reflected off the skyscrapers, Jim began his nightly pilgrimage up Market Street, one tired eye looking for half-smoked cigarette butts, the other looking for cops. His “kind” were no longer welcome in the City by the Bay, thanks to Mayor Brown and his council.

“Get a job ya loser!”

With one hand holding the front of his zipperless jacket together and the other hand wrapped tightly around the garbage bag holding his worldly possessions, he stood at the corner of Market and Powell wondering which alley held dinner. Supper last night had been at the Salvation Army but since they weren’t open on Wednesdays he was left to fend for himself tonight.

“Bloody parasites, yer ruining this city!”

Jim reached deep into his pocket to stroke the soft fur of his best friend, Elroy, a tiny cat with only three legs he’d found in the alley one night. Jim’s friends thought he was nuts, after all, it was hard enough feeding one mouth these days, let alone two.

“Mommy, that man STINKS.”

Elroy and Jim had spent most of the day standing on a busy corner with a sign that read “Homeless Please Helpp God Bles”. Some tourist in a t-shirt that announced that he had been to Alcatraz gave him 50 cents, which Jim had promptly spent on a can of Seaside Supper for Elroy.

He could tell Elroy appreciated it because he’d purred the whole time he was eating the fishy treat.

“God, I hope I never end up like THAT guy.”

After Elroy was done with his afternoon snack they wandered down to the marina where Jim liked to watch the sailboats while Elroy terrorized the seagulls. Jim thought he might have had a sailboat once but these days his memory wasn’t so good so he figured maybe he’d just dreamt he’d had one.

“These bloody bums, why don’t they ship ‘em all off to Pakistan or something?”

Now it was time to find some supper. Since it was after 9:00 Jim knew most of the restaurants in the city would be starting to toss whatever they thought wouldn’t sell by the end of the night. But by the time he’d gotten to the end of the first alley he’d only managed to scrounge up two slices of sourdough bread and a piece of funny tasting chicken. The second alley only yielded a half-eaten slice of New York style cheesecake. Well, some nights were better than others. Settling down behind a trash can he reached into his garbage bag and pulled out a stained linen napkin, placing it over his lap. Graciously offering Elroy a piece of the chicken he then helped himself to some of the stale bread.

“They’re not even like real people … ya know what I mean?”