Chronicles Of Being Disabled, Entry #93876:

Having been properly packed and sent off by Publix’s very own Abuelita, I make my way to the bus stop. I would NOT be stopping at Starbucks for coffee, I would NOT meander and loiter in these Sunday streets. I just wanted to get on home.

As I approached the bus shelter, I spied a Little Person. He is a black gentleman that I have seen take this very same bus, quite often. Though I don’t know his name, I nodded my Hello, asked him which bus just passed, thanked him when he told me and promptly parked in such a way that I would be able to see my bus coming from up yonder. I settled in, ready to listen to my Snap Judgment podcast, when the Gentleman began to lament that he forgot his walking cane at his prior destination.

I sympathized with him and began to tell him that perhaps he could get one from Walgreens or Goodwill. He waved me off and said that he had already taken two buses for the day and would just do without it. I remember seeing him walk fine on prior occasions without it and just assumed that like me, maybe he had good days and bad days. I pressed play on my podcast and began to listen again. But the Gentleman had other plans.

There are some things in life that you hear, that you can only assume would come from the deep dark recesses of a demented writer’s imagination. But this Gentleman was no writer and it was obvious that he had a story to tell.

He goes on to say that he needed his cane to go panhandling early in the morning. He goes through the breakdown of his meager finances with me and advises that after he pays his rent at the 3/4 Way-House, after he pays his phone and pays $20 for toiletries, that by the 10th or 15th of the month, what he has left in his pocket (about $180), won’t help him make it to the end of the month because his Girl, likes to eat. She apparently likes Publix Subs, Chinese Buffet, which is $12-$13 and Chili’s, which is at least $30 every time they go.

He goes on to say that this same Girl, makes him so upset but he can’t put his hands on her no more, because he’s already done time for doing that. It has been brought to my attention that his kind of assault is a felony. He also tells me that he’s tired from Friday and upset with his Girl because on Friday, for the first time in seven months, he and his Girl did crack, smoked some weed and drank some beer.

At this point, he wanted to stress to me that it was JUST the crack that they had taken a hiatus from but that they usually drink and smoke weed. I nod, wide eyed and back away a little bit because though he is a Little Person, his hands? Can knock me into the next town and I’m not trying to go BACK to the hospital any time soon for anything. But I digress.

So, on Friday, after they had done the crack, smoked the weed and he drank about four beers, he noticed his Girl conked out and told her to go to bed and that he was gonna go home. He told her to call him at 12:30am, cause it would take him about an hour to make it from her house to his. He said when he got home, she didn’t call. So he went back to her house. He knocked and did not get an answer, so he went back home again. After this happening two more times, it was tapping on 4am and his mind told him to go around the corner from where his Girl stay at and see if she was up the street, cause he had a feeling about what she might have been up to.

And sure enough, when he went up the street from his Girl house he found that his Girl was trickin’! He knew it was her because he saw her black knee brace. When he approached her, she denied it but he says that she’s a compulsive liar and shrugged his shoulders. He tells me that he would like to get his own place with his Girl, because they usually have to find a “place” to “be together”, like in an alley or behind a- well and once a month they rent a motel together. But if he gets his own place with his Girl and if he panhandles, they should be alright.

I’m sure there was more to this story but I was never so glad to see a bus than I was to see mine pulling up.

I.CAN’T.MAKE.THIS.Sh!t.UP!

Be safe out there Citizens!

#DisabledChronicles #CrackAndWeedAndBeer
#INeedToStayHomeOnSundays
#WhyYouPuttingYourHandsOnWomanLittleMan
#IJustWantedToGoHome #TrueStoriesOf2016