Linus McFarland worked for the city’s security department and had been given the assignment of flying a drone to photograph and document details of the homeless crisis. The particular drones he would be using were high powered but tiny so they could be flown undetected. Linus flew the first of the drones at the original city meeting where Douglas, the moderator, called on Mason, the speaker for the grant writer, who explained about the Federal Government donating three decommissioned cruise ships for the homeless people to live on, which would get them off of the streets of Portland, Oregon. He turned the meeting over to Clark # 1, the head of the planning committee, who explained the time frame of the whole process.
Next, the drone traveled to the streets to spy on Sue, who lived in a broken down motorhome and worked in a nursing home until choosing to move to one of the cruise ships. The drone caught a glimpse of Gloria, 45 and Ted, 50 coming out of their motorhome in the same neighborhood. They have been homeless too, coming from Detroit and also moved to a cruise ship to teach children and help with mechanics.
The drone moved neighborhoods and highlighted Trish and Carol, who were stepping lightly, around homeless individuals sleeping on the streets. As they carefully avoided stepping on discarded hypodermic needles, the girls said that they regretted renting a house in this area and wished they had stayed in the college dorm.
Linus captured Laurence, a 6’4”, 50 year old ex-wrestler, who thought he was well hidden, on camera and would have forcefully had him taken from his hiding place if he hadn’t eagerly left for the cruise ship.
At times, Linus got too big for his britches and overstepped his authority. He was actually only responsible for the drone assignment and was not authorized to interact beyond that with the homeless persons.
Linus followed Danny for a couple of days while Danny put up the posters which explained to the homeless population how to go about getting a new place to live aboard the cruise ships. During this time, Officer Walters was filmed doing what he could to take food he had collected from restaurants at the end of the day to homeless people. It was also caught on film when Barbara Jean, who had run the flower shop and lost it to looters, passed away on the streets from a drug overdose. The drone caught Danny being shown the old warehouse where Darlene and others lived. Linus laughed out loud when the drone showed him Beth, who had mental problems and had befriended a little mouse. It wasn’t really funny, it was more pathetic, but Linus had never seen anything like that before, with her talking to the mouse like he understood every word she said.
He also caught Council members Malcolm and James in a coffee shop, talking in hushed tones about how they planned to take out the elderly after the new year. The drone Linus was flying was powerful enough to pick up the quiet words but not powerful enough to stop the shocked feelings from affecting Linus. His mind went directly to his grandmother, and how he would feel if she was so callously treated. Linus thought about it for a while and realized he was not there to judge and was simply meant to record and leave the judgment up to his superiors.
One of Linus’s favorite homeless people was Wall Street Jim and his friends, Tim and Harold. They were stoners and Jim had a stuffed squirrel named L’il Bob. He really didn’t believe Jim had ever had such an important job as working on Wall Street, but it was definitely fun watching them.
One of the hardest workers he had ever seen showed up when he took the drone to the meeting place at the shuttered grocery store where the homeless people were gathered, waiting for their ride to the cruise ships. Marjorie was in charge of the food being served there. She received it, oversaw the cooking and then the distribution of the food. He watched her then report in to Sarah several times a day. Sarah was the head honcho there, overseeing the showers, the drivers of the vans, the inspections, etc.
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The drone then captured Bruce looking on as the heavy equipment destroyed his makeshift house. The clock repairman lost everything he had in that sweep and walked sadly to the grocery store parking lot. Linus caught sight of Brenda on the way to the parking lot and filmed her. Her yellow eyes, squinting in the sunlight, caused her to resemble a tiger.
It was a little bit tricky maneuvering the drone into the mission where many of the homeless population went to eat their meals. The door was automatic and Linus had to time the drone’s flight just right so it was not squished when the doors closed. Using his I-pad controller, no one would suspect him of flying a drone, unless they examined the I-pad closely! He caught a conversation between two of the servers at the mission, Alice and Ray. Alice was considering moving onto the ship, even though she wasn’t homeless because she had been serving the homeless at this mission for a number of years and she really cared about them.
Linus had a real knack for being in the right place at the right time to take the best shots with his drone. His boss was convinced that Linus had an intuition unparalleled by the other drone operators. Linus operated his drone remotely when he captured the pictures aboard the cruise ship. He laughed as he saw the homeless person, Nancy, 72 years old, waddling up the ramp to get aboard her ship. She would walk two steps forward and then stop to take a breather, then repeat until she made it. He thought, “Just boarding the ship took her almost twenty minutes. I would have given up by now if I was in her place! Then he thought of his grandmother again and the thought occurred to him that Nancy was most likely someone’s grandmother and he felt ashamed that he had laughed at her.
He was able to follow several men who started running when an alarm went off and clearly showed Mark in one of the cabins, smoking, and not just a cigarette, and his obvious disrespect of the ship’s rules. It was clear from the drone’s pictures that Mark was headed back to shore and to the clinic!
The interviewers on the ship had their hands full, taking down information on each person and getting them sorted and put into the right job. It was a joyous occasion when the children were each given a free toy of their own choosing for cooperating with the interviewers! One of the interviewers, Marcie, was asked by a 7 year old if she could give up her toy so her mother could get her hair cut and styled. Marcie told the child, Tina, to go ahead and get a toy and that she would pay for the mother, Doris to get her hair done. Linus almost started crying, watching this!
Linus almost lost his cookies when the drone picked up Bruce scratching and scratching and he saw a maggot fall to the floor in the dining room. He quickly turned the view of the drone away from that ugly sight and heard Rex, the boss of the food service leave his dessert cart to find the purser, Arnold. Arnold quickly jumped into action, found out Bruce had just recently gone cold turkey off of his drugs so he would be accepted on the cruise ship and got him some medical attention.
Albert Kleinschmitt, the principal of the onboard school, was seen interviewing possible teachers. One in particular, Frank, had been a teacher before he went homeless, living in a VW bus until he came here. He was 5’3” and 50 years old and Albert was not inclined to put him with the children.
We then meet Jordan, a 12 year old, blond homeless child who is very mischievous and her mother, Sharon.
Clark #2 was caught by the drone, investigating the ins and outs of euthenasia. In his position it was extremely important to be politically correct in all dealings with this volatile subject. Then the drone followed Carl at the clinic, as he served the food to the patients, discovering along with him the dark truths of how the drug addicts were being helped.
Linus had not expected such a roller coaster of emotions. He requested a week’s vacation, after the stress of filming with the drone, hoping to get his emotions under control.