After several seasons devoted to my mission (fuck you Johnny Bobo!) I ended up in the financial sector of Ace City, The City Of Progress, where I used to work, where the elevator broke, with me in it.
I ended up there and found it a pretty sustainable spot to hang out in for several reasons: 1) Tons of recyclables; people doing business are in a hurry, and the stores trying to cater to them all have recycling options for disposal, but they don't really give a shit, and aren't organized enough to manage the process. 2) Due to some recent policy shifts to the far right, the homeless had all been chased out, so there was no one around to move this garbage. There were all these dudes and ladies cruising around on mountain bikes with Glocks and those steal whips, wearing red polo shirts with SAFETY and their job was to force you back next door to Skid Row. 3) At this stage in the game I could pass for not being homeless, because I was organized enough to buy non sketchy clothes at Goodwill. When I started scouting the area I picked up a sweater/pants combination which atworst made me look some kind of dazed academic.
Like anyone else, the Red Shirts headed home around cocktail hour, and then it was easy as pie to grab two to five garbage bags full of bottles from different dumpsters and dip into China Town to cash the min, usually for around eight to twenty bucks.
A person can actually live well on this sort of income. The trick is to dumpster dive for fruit and veggies, and spend the money on things like peanut butter or tuna fish, basically stuff that's dense and not too heavy. If you're doing it right, exercising and staying away from sugar, a person gets in pretty good shape.
I decided to stay for a bit, and the mission became, how long can I hang out before I get kicked out, or decide to come up with a new mission. I liked not walking all day, got into the quiet moments,like resting in the park on the afternoons, learning how long I could doze before calling attention to myself.
When I lived in Skid Row, I'd heard a few stories about people sleeping in some of the big buildings of the financial district. Supposedly some of these fancy towers of progress were pretty disorganized, and there was often a back way in, so you could sleep in a stairwell, in a temperature adjusted and quiet space, and it was usually hard for anyone to sneak up on you.
I cased different buildings, ones located around Plum Roosters, this sophisticated convenience store chain (basically 7-Eleven, but where everything was triple organic, as in triple the price), who always had the best returnables. Sure enough, I located an older building,brick as opposed to the more modern glass and steel places, with aback exit that opened up if you were patient and jiggled the door just right. I spent several nights hanging around, getting a sense of who came in and out, and when I was pretty certain I could slip out before five AM without getting busted, and that no one used the backstairs after eight PM, then I bought myself a little alarm clock with a vibration function, and moved in, so to speak.
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THE DOG HUNTERS (completed)
Fiksi UmumA suicidal homeless weirdo has adventures. He runs into a duo of dog lovers, who spend their days traveling around the city observing and honoring dogs. Wisdom cannot be run away from. He escapes paradise and falls in love with a strange lady who m...
