Okay, enough high art, and fiddles, which
in my eyes and after my treatment usually becomes low comedy. By the way, in
the world of strings, we do call them fiddles, or axes. Unbelievable, but there
it is. Although treated with the reverence they deserve, they are our kith and
kin. Enough.
I got my crime report for 33605 this
morning via email. I’ve been receiving it for several months. I signed up for
it and when I received it and had a hilarious time with it, I decided to let
them keep sending it to me. This is not the 33605 I know. I know for damned
sure it’s not my wee ma’s 33605, nor is it a Wallace 33605. I’ll let you all
look at this ferocious crime wave. I am sure Dostoevsky would have written
something like “Crime and Scones” had he lived here:
Some laddies made off with Mrs. McGuires' pig, near Pentreath Ln. BOLO
So, I went and hunted up my own
33605. I don’t really need it. We have the Nebraska grapevine and it is pretty
right on. We often know who got picked up on a parole violation before the igmo
gets put back in the system. Sometimes, I’m not sure if I’m in “Guys and Dolls”
or in “Clockers.”
We’ve got a batch of folks (I can’t
bring myself to say posse, we might be a crew, loosely inferred) who were all
in the homeless shelter together and some of us are still there and some of us
are out here, but close by. There are about 5 houses that shelter near one
another in this area. Our neighborhood association President, knows everyone.
These shelters have a mix of everyone, homeless who are part of homeless
recovery, felons who are on parole, sex offenders, B and E specialists, a
murderer or two, mental cases. There are habitual offenders who steal
everything that isn’t nailed down. I was there because I was homeless and a “victim”
in a domestic dispute. I say “victim,” in quotes, because the guy I was with, looked a
hell of a lot worse than I did.
Anyway, here’s the deal. Whatever
happened is in the past. You’d be amazed at how far that gets you in the good
will department. Some people do get violated. There’s one guy who’s been
running around and I suspect he had something to do with the death of a friend
of mine over the summer. I hated him on sight, because he is so very cold and a
sociopath, and when I was still kind of frail, I fell between the washer and
the dryer and hurt myself, badly. A drug users and one of the sexual offenders
were beside themselves. They couldn’t pick me up fast enough. One was running
around, getting manager to help me. They were still connected enough to people
to respond. The sociopath just stood there and looked. That kind of guy.
I have to say something about sex
offenders, or s.o. as they’re called. 90% of these guys are what they call “Romeo
and Juliet” people. 18 year old guys with a 15 year old girl. Daddy finds out
and bam! They’re in jail. There are some truly creepy ones and when I was
there, they were singled out. Everyone knew and you can tell. They’re just
fucked up in the head. The others? I lived there for 11 months and never a
problem. That is just my opinion, but they are all stigmatized and labeled and
their lives ruined and it sucks. I hold my hand out to every one of them. Their
gratitude is overwhelming. They work hard to regain some kind of legitimacy in
society. As I said our Neighborhood Association Prez knows they’re here. She
said no NIMBY here.
This is just part of 33605. Red ellipse shows Nebraska Ave. Of course, some of the crimes include crap like the famous calling TPD because 6'4" tall Mr. C wouldn't do his dishes, so 4'11" D swore at him. Mr. C called cops 'cause she swore. TPD took one look at the 2 of them, told Mr. C to do his dishes and D to stop swearing. Me? I'd have arrested 'em both, just for yuks.
Anyway, we all keep each other
informed about what’s going on. The socio-psychopath has no peace, because we’re
all on the phones to each other telling one another where he is. He’s scheduled
to go back to court for a Grand Theft charge anyway. Hopefully, the judge will
stick him in the pen, where he belongs. He’s the Brainiac who ran from the TPD,
after he’d made a deal of some sort with the FBI. Dumbass; I heard this WHOOP! And
feet running south on Nebraska and Einstein went to Prisneyland for a while.
We are a little community; one of
ours died recently. I was on the phone with Jason who still lives in the
shelter. He was on the phone with Dana who was at the bedside of Jeff who was
dying. Mike was beside Jason. We were all there when Jeff died. It was strange,
but oddly fitting. We’ve all been through this hell of being in the system, somehow and landing in the shelter. Dana came to the shelter
when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She and Jeff struck up a
relationship; he was there because he was homeless and an alcoholic. They cared
for one another. Dana and I talked about it later, crying on the phone
together. We’re family and like any family, we squabble and we’re rather more
dysfunctional than other families.
I had another little epiphany
recently. One of the guys, Rick, who still lives at the shelter, works at one
of the convenience stores in the area. He can be a pain in the ass, but, who isn’t? I’m
horrible. He was the one who cleaned my knee, elbow and head when I fell. JC
had had to go to school that day and wasn’t around at the shelter. Anyway, I
said something in my stupid callous way; it hurt Rick’s feelings. This big,
rough and tough guy. He proceeded to haunt JC for about 3 weeks and kept asking
him if he’d done anything. I had noticed that Rick had been sullen and I hadn’t
spoken to him. I just assumed he was going through one of his moods. I thought
for a moment, after JC mentioned this for the 3rd or 4th time.
He never did anything like that; this was just not like Rick. Big bear of a
guy; I’ve seen him throw some punches. He’s the enforcer at the shelter.
Oh my God. Rick actually looks up to
me. He does respect me and cares what I think about him. I would never have
expected that because this is such a rough environment. You just let it fly. I
can’t ever do that to people I’ve bonded with so closely. It’s like war. We’re
foxhole mates. I told JC, “I have to make this right.” I went to the store and
apologized and got him some YooHoos, his favorite drink. I told him, “Don’t you
ever think I don’t care. We’ve been through some shit. You’re my friend. We can
talk. If I say something. Tell me, okay? Are we okay, now?” Big grin. Aw shucks
smile. All was right on Nebraska, or as right as it gets.
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