Sue spotted another new sign posted by the homeless encampment where she lived. She lived in a run down motorhome that needed a new fuel line, so she had been stuck here for two weeks and was just hoping she could get it fixed before the city had it towed. She usually moved more frequently, so was starting to feel uncomfortable, but as of yet, had no resources to fix the motorhome and no alternatives. She worked a 40 hour week, taking care of the elderly in a nursing home. She was an RN and was a damn good nurse.
Sue stopped to read the sign. It said, “How would you like to live on a cruise ship?” She scoffed and wondered how anyone would have the gall to put that kind of notice up in this neighborhood. People here couldn’t afford housing, how were they going to afford to live on a cruise ship? Out of curiosity, Sue continued reading. “This is a new pilot program designed specifically for the homeless of Portland, Oregon. Meet us to find out more at the closed down Safeway store downtown on Wednesday, September 13th at 10:00 AM.”
Sue thought,” It’s worth listening to . Maybe I will end up living on a cruise ship. Ha! That’ll be the day! But, what do I have to lose?” Sue daydreamed about being on a cruise ship, swimming and dining and having fun while she finished her walk home . and let herself into the motorhome. She put her groceries on the counter and realized she needed to go to the bathroom. Shoot! She wasn’t using the motorhome bathroom because she had no way to dump it since she couldn’t drive it to a dump station. Plenty of people in these run-down motorhomes were just running the drainage hoses to the gutter, but she didn’t want to contribute any more than she had to to the filthiness of the area. The raw sewage that went into the gutters ended up going into the storm drains and flowing into the nearby river. She left her scrubs on so she wouldn’t look homeless and walked back to an area with restaurants. She went in and ordered a coffee to go and ran to the bathroom while they were preparing it.
While she walked back to her motorhome, she thought about how she had gotten here. When her husband had passed on suddenly five years ago, she discovered their savings were gone from their mutual account, with no explanation..Her husband had always handled the finances and she had had no reason to distrust him. He always paid bills on time. All the bank could tell her was that regularly, large withdrawals had been made. Their large beautiful home was no longer affordable with only one income and she had to deal with foreclosure. The life insurance policy she had counted on to pay for the balance of the mortgage had been cashed in already by her husband, a helpful girl at the insurance company told her, and she let her know that she overheard him talking to someone about his regular visits to a casino! There was no chance to feel sorry for herself, as she had to jump in with both feet and figure things out. She had sold or given away all of her belongings at that point and moved into their motorhome. After five years, Sue had almost paid off the last of the debts by being very frugal and living in these cramped quarters. While she thought about the past, she made herself a delicious chef salad and sat down to enjoy it.
Trish and Carol attended college in Portland and were roommates off campus in a nice, hipster area of the city. Trish was telling Carol about her test in applied science and how she was beginning to think she had chosen the wrong major when Carol said, “It’s getting harder every day just to find space on the sidewalk to step. If I’d known the homeless population was so bad, I would have opted to stay in the dorms!”
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Trish said, “Yeah, me too. I can’t really wear my Uggs anymore out here because I’m afraid a needle will go right through them when I’m not paying attention.” She glared at a very dirty old man, laying halfway in and halfway out of his tent. He had track marks up and down his arm and his eyes were rolled back in his head. His head rested on the bare sidewalk and his ribs showed beneath his torn shirt.
Carol said, as she searched for the house keys, “Let’s order pizza in so we don’t have to go back out and see the mess of the homeless outside tonight.”
“Ok, sounds like a plan. I needed to wash my hair and study, anyway,” said Trish.
Ten minutes later, the doorbell rang and Trish ran to open the door to let the pizza man in. He took the pizza out of the warming bag and said, “Did you know there is a lady bleeding a lot on your front lawn? It looks like she was attacked.”
“That ‘s none of our business and it’s good riddance to another homeless person, if you ask me,” Trish said as she munched on a slice of sausage and pepperoni pizza and she closed and locked the door. Carol was holding back the curtains, peering out. The pizza man was on the phone and they could hear him faintly giving their address to the police and telling them to hurry or the lady would not make it.
An ambulance was there soon and after putting the lady inside the truck, sped off with its sirens blaring. The pizza guy came back to their door, holding a small, scruffy dog in his arms, who they could tell was originally white, and said, ”I think this dog belongs to that lady. Would it be possible for it to stay with you until she gets back from the hospital? It’s probably her only companion.”
“No!” Trish emphatically said. “Why should we take care of that mongrel? It probably has fleas and is sick!”
“I just thought it would be easier for her to find her little pet if you kept him here. Never mind, I’ll take the dog home with me,” the pizza man said and took the dog out to his car. He left his phone number with Trish and Carol so the hurt lady could find him when she got home.
Laurence, a big man, an ex-wrestler, lived in the part of town where most of the drug users hung out. He felt relatively safe since people knew he was a good fighter. He was 6’4” and pushing 50 years old. He had found a blocked off alleyway behind some buildings downtown where he had his tent set up. So far, being out of sight, he had not had to be bothered with the sweeps that were constantly taking place. He was walking to the mission to get supper when he saw the sign, “How would you like to live on a cruise ship?” His mind went back to his successful days, when he was rolling in the dough and had taken a cruise with Sherry, a buxom, blonde bombshell. Mmmmuhmmm! He kept walking and when he got to the mission, saw another sign. Right then and there, he decided to go to the meeting the following day.
Everyone was talking about the signs at supper. He caught some of the excited comments. “Do you really think this is real?” “It sounds too good to be true!” “Why would they send us on a cruise?” “Do you think we will go to Tahiti?” “Maybe we will go through the Panama Canal and go to the Caribbean!”