The next day, Laurence stopped by on the way to breakfast at the mission to see if Brenda wanted to go with him. As he walked up, she pulled a tourniquet off of her arm and put down her hypodermic needle onto the ground. He had seen it all before. He invited her to go with him, but knew she wouldn’t. She would lay here enjoying her euphoria, escaping reality through her best friend and worst enemy. She didn’t even acknowledge him or see him, as she sank back into a small window of forgetfulness. Laurence felt frustrated and sad. No matter how strong and powerful he was or once was, he was helpless to help her.
Laurence thought of how much it would mean to her and himself and many others to have the chance to live away from this and start their lives over again. His steps picked up as he realized their dreams would come true tomorrow! He dared to hope things would work out this time! He had a smile on his face as he walked into the mission and Tim greeted him holding L’il Bob while Wall street Jim went through the serving line.
“ Lookie L’il Bob, it’s Laurence and he is smiling! What’s going on?” Tim asked.
Laurence said, “I’m just thinking about getting a fresh start tomorrow. Are you guys going early on the first van out of here?”
“Naw, Jim is not ready. He thinks it is a trick and that there is really not going to be any help for us. It is going to take some convincing to get him to go. We will probably go later in the week. He has the munchies really bad cause we ran out of everything last night except for weed and he had a hard time waiting till this morning! Look at him put it away! He can eat a lot for a skinny guy!”
Laurence went to stand in line and his eyes fell on Jim. Jim was 6’ 5” and looked like a string bean. He probably didn’t weigh more than 125 pounds, soaking wet. Then his mind drifted to tomorrow and he wondered what he would do once he got on the ship. He didn’t have any specialized training, but he was plenty strong, especially for a man of fifty so he was confident he could be a big help on the ship.
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Two men in line reached for the same muffin and a fight broke out. They were swinging and kicking and one looked like he thought he could do karate and got the legs kicked out from under him. He jumped up swinging and pulled out a knife. Everyone scattered way away from them and Laurence jumped up and yelled at them and pushed them apart, but not before the guy with a knife cut a deep gash on the other man’s forehead. Laurence grabbed his wrist and twisted, causing him to drop the knife. The man yelped and ran for the door, right into the arms of the police. Both men were taken away, one to the hospital and one to the police station. He would be detained overnight and then turned loose. His withdrawals would not be pretty in jail, Laurence knew.
The top man at the clinic had contacted several organizations to help with the staffing and setting up of the clinic. Clark had had experience with euthenasia, but not on such a large scale. He first of all studied the laws, so they would be compliant. Clark knew euthenasia had been legal in Oregon for over 20 years, but he still had a lot of questions. He had his top assistant working on compiling information on treatments for the different street drugs so they would have the necessary equipment and capable staff members available when the clinic opened. This had all been completed by September first in order to give Clark time to hire and order supplies.
Today, he would conduct classes to train the workers in the etiquette of the clinic and the terminology he would expect them to use. After a lunch break, he would interview them one-by- one and determine who would fit in. Quite an exhausting process, but Clark actually felt exhilarated, thinking about how he was doing his part to clean up the homeless epidemic.
At the mission, Alice and Roy were talking while they were serving the potato soup and canned peaches. Alice said, “I have been working here for ten years. I don’t know what I will do now. I thought about applying to serve food on one of the ships. What will you do?”
Roy said, “Do you really think all of the homeless will really be gone? I have my doubts. And if there are still homeless, we will still have our jobs. I guess I will think about it if it truly happens.”