The First Night of Homelessness
As I walked into the shelter, I passed an African-American man walking out with his backpack. I hardly noticed I was buzzing from hunger and lack of sleep. I went to the counter, A guy was behind it who made me think of an ex-boxer. “ may I help you?” he asked quietly.
“ I have been awake over twenty-four hours, I haven’t ate or slept, I need a place to crash.” There was a cold delivery pizza that had been sitting there on the desk, for who knows how long. My stomach growled, it was the most beautiful thing I ever saw in my life.
“ Tonight’s your lucky night.” The guy behind the counter said. “ The guy you t passed you as you came in, freed up a bed just for you. Have some pizza, while I call and tell them you’re on your way back.” I took the box of pizza from him, thanking him profusely as I wolfed down a cold, stale piece.
After a brief phone call, the guy behind the counter hung up the phone, just as I finished my first slice. “ Okay.” He said. “ You can go on back. They’re ready for you.” I grabbed the handle of my over-night bag, and picked up the box of pizza, and headed back to another world.
I walked through double doors into a large room with two Banquet tables sitting end to end. A hulking Black man with a yellow shirt with “ Security” Stenciled across his massive shoulders, approached me and pointed at the table.
“ Put the bag on the table.” He demanded. “ Open the bag, and place your hands on the table.” I was frisked, then he walked around the table and searched the inside of the bag. “ Close the bag, then head through that door.”
I followed directions and entered another room, that was as dark as the other room was lighted. Two my right, was another long table where a heavily pierced and tattooed man in his twenties, was sitting with a clip- board in front of him.
“ I need a photo I.D.” He said as he reached out his hand. I gave it to him. “ Head to the end of the table.” He ordered, as I went to another man with another clip-board.
The guy at the other end of the table logged on another clipboard. He assigned me a bed, then gave general directions on how to find it in the massive, dark room lined with bunk-beds full of moaning, snoring and talking to themselves homeless men.
I found my bunk, a top bunk, but I was too tired to care. I climbed up and started to eat my pizza. “ Can I have some pizza?” An African-American teen-ager in the bunk next to mine asked.
I shifted the box so we could both reach it, and within minutes, the pizza was gone. I climbed down to throw the box away, then went back to my bunk and fell instantly asleep.
