Anna

18 - Downtown Los Angeles

Content warnings: drug addiction, homelessness

Tessa twitched her nose in an attempt to subtly flick away the sewage stench that permeated the downtown Los Angeles streets. No matter where they went, the city had two smells: bad and worse. And the area where Eleanor had last been seen fell into the worse category.

Next to her, Joe sidestepped a rotting pile of garbage.

"Of all the places to be homeless, LA is one of the worst."

Tessa nodded in agreement.

"Let's just find Eleanor," she said, thinking of Ellie sitting at home without anyone else with her. She had been home alone before and handled it well, but it did not make Tessa any less anxious to get back to her.

As far as Ellie knew, Tessa and Joe had gone out for the night. They did not want her knowing that their version of "going out" meant combing through the streets for a woman who abandoned her daughter. It was not worth getting her hopes up if they were unsuccessful.

The first time they went searching for Eleanor, they at least had police to do all the heavy lifting for them. Even then, it'd taken several days.

Now that finding Ellie's mother was no longer a police matter, Tessa and Joe only had themselves to rely on—and a private investigator to get them most of the way there. So they took to the streets with nothing but a three-year-old mugshot from a public database, a list of streets Eleanor frequented, and a resolve to do whatever it took to get Ellie her mom back.

"Down there," Tessa said, pointing towards a street sign denoting the corner of Fifth and San Pedro. "The PI said she's been there every day this week."

Joe took Tessa's hand and veered off the curb to bypass a myriad of tents blocking the sidewalk.

They walked with purpose down the street, weaving through makeshift shelters. Tessa's heart ached for the people who slept there, their stories of how they ended up on the streets unimaginable.

Most importantly to her, she hurt for Eleanor. Not only had she lost her daughter, but she lost herself as a result, driving her out of her home and into the merciless disease of addiction.

At the end of the block, Joe stopped them outside a mission and approached a group of volunteers unloading boxes from the bed of a pickup truck.

"Have you seen this woman?" He held out the piece of paper they'd printed at home with Eleanor's mugshot.

The volunteers ignored him.

"I'm not asking for anything. I just need to know if you've seen her."

"Get in line or fuck off," barked a bearded man the size of a refrigerator, gesturing towards a queue of people along the side of the building.

Tessa and Joe checked every mission and shelter within the three block radius Eleanor frequented, most of them unwilling to even glance in their direction. The ones who actually gave them the time of day did not recognize her.

With the sun beginning to set and taking the warmth of day with it, Tessa and Joe would have to call it quits soon.

"Just one more," Tessa said, pointing to a building across the street. A handwritten sign taped to the front of a table that read "first come, first serve" flapped in the thick breeze.

"Excuse me," Joe said to the person manning the table at the entrance. "We're looking for this woman. Have you seen her?"

The volunteer replied without looking up from her hands.

"Nope."

"We're trying to reunite her with her daughter." Joe held out the image, but the volunteer brushed them off again.