Classy (LGBTQIA+)

A Classy Restaurant

When she awoke, her back ached. Not in the usual, oh I have a sore back but I’ll have to suck-it-up-princess sort of way, but in the way that made you want to take the entire bottle of Advil and chase it with a drink and cigarette. Unfortunately she didn't have Advil or a drink or a cigarette. She didn't have much of anything. So she grit her teeth and moved on.

Lou wasn't at the ‘house’ as Sara called it fondly.  It wasn't a house at all, really, just a lean-to on a side of a tree. However, at least it was something. Better than sleeping on the cold wet ground - instead she got to sleep on a cold floor. She was near the Bow River and you could hear the traffic rushing to her right. She was a hit with a brief yearning to live like that, to be able to complain about how the traffic was bad, sorry I’m late for work boss. Sara had subconsciously began to chew on the inside of her lip again, it was a nervous habit of hers. She stopped and trudged up the hill - there was a gentle slope leading down to the river, the ground pointing down towards it as if saying why don’t you just go for a swim, you’ll be fine, no current, none at all, and the fact you’ll probably die and that you also can’t swim is irrelevant.

Sara was tempted. It would be so easy to just go down the hill and fling herself into the river, just let it all be over. No more struggles, no more freezing nights, no more sore back, no more not being able to land a job. There was nothing, nothing at all that seemed to tie her to this earth except for a little scraggly mutt of a dog named Lou. But Lou had gone off somewhere, and although that wasn’t improbable because she had never been tied up, it was a rare thing for Lou to leave. It made Sara worry, Lou seemed to be the only one she could hold a friendship with. She supposed being a smelly old homeless woman didn't much help her case in trying to get friends.

Sara mounted the crest of the hill and surveyed the area. The little dog was nowhere in sight. And although this was normal, she couldn't help but feel a little trickle of apprehension make it’s way down her back. She followed along the road, heading towards a mall. This was one of her usual places that she scavenged. Sometimes, if she was really lucky someone might drop their wallet or a bit of cash. If you avoided the mall cops, you could also beg. Some of the kinder people even opted to give you a bit of money.

It was a bit of a ways to walk to the mall after you crossed the bridge but Sara was used to walking. Judging from the position of the sun in the sky, it was about ten-ish. Of course the sun being your only guide to the time could be quite inaccurate sometimes, of course the sun wasn't about to  yell down at Sara, ‘hey it’s ten o’clock exactly’! Especially on those damn daylight savings days - like how exactly was Sara supposed to know if they thought about adding or subtracting a hour on a certain day if she didn't even have a calendar? Ridiculous. To Sara, the whole business with the way the sun worked and how the universe worked was too complicated for her. She dismissed it for some of the more scholarly type of people.  

The parking lot at the mall was packed. What day was it again? Sara tried counting the days on her fingers from the last date she knew but she couldn’t quite figure it out. Saturday? It didn’t matter. All days end in y, so they are pretty much the same. Any differences in them were metaphorical. It didn’t matter to the bees or the birds or the stray mutts (like Lou) what day it was.

She tried her luck going all the way around the mall, her eyes finding their way against the unyielding cement. By the time she made it all the way around the building, she had only found a total of five bucks. It was enough to get her some McDonald’s maybe, some lunch. She was just not having a lucky day. Sara sighed and left the parking lot of the mall.

She felt that settling guilt of anyone who had left a store without buying anything. It’s not like she stole something either, she just felt guilty. Even though she was enormously poor, the freeloader with five bucks to her name, she had resolved to keep some morals. After all, when you didn’t have anything you could still at least have the metaphorical things. And that was good. Even if she disagreed with certain ridiculous metaphorical things. Sara began working her way towards McDonald’s. The nearest one was down the highway a bit, and then she could loop back towards the “house.” Hopefully Lou would join up with her somewhere along the way. Maybe they could share some french fries. A cart, most likely from the mall, was stuck in the ditch. Sara considered picking it up and collecting some cans, becoming “city maintenance” as she had jokingly named the homeless people who picked up carts and filled them with bottles for a bit of extra cash from the recycling centre.. Of course, it would sacrifice the little bit of dignity she had left, at least at first glance most people would maybe think she just had some ratty clothes. If she started pushing a cart around full of cans it would be like waving a flag that said “Hi, look at me, I’m homeless!”. It would be pity inducing for sure. Sara hated being pitied.