David and Graci
by
Michael Obrian Werner
Chapter 1
David was walking down
the busy city sidewalk at about five in the evening, scanning the
storefronts with his eyes and dodging the people walking past him at the
same time. He was looking for a good place where he could sleep
tonight, any place as long as it was safe and comfortable he thought.
David continued down the street and nothing looks promising. The
commuters on the sidewalk paid no attention to him and didn't even
bother to move out of his way. One large man walked toward him swiftly,
talking on a cell phone. His elbow slammed into David's face as he
rushed by, knocking him to the side, almost causing David to fall to the
ground and he stumbled about trying to keep his balance. The man
continued down the sidewalk without even a glance or acknowledgment of
what just happened.
David reached up and
felt the side of his face where the mans sharp elbow impacted his jaw.
He stood there slightly hunched over, bewildered and in pain and turned
his head to see the man disappear into the hurrying crowds.
David was a averaged
size seventeen year old boy in a worn, scuffed long coat with an equally
tattered pair of black jeans. His hair was dark brown and uncombed, it
matched the ragged look of his outfit. He wasn't much to look at against
the contrast of the indifferent people walking around him. He had just
ran away from the Somerset children's shelter in midtown where he had
been living for the past seventeen years, his entire life, and now here
he was homeless and wondering if he had made a mistake in running away.
Only time would tell he thought.
David groaned a little
more and cursed under his breath. The burning of his injury started to
subside and he decided it was time to move on. He shook off the pain
then started walking again looking for his final resting spot for the
night. He figured that an alley way would be his best bet. There was
really no other possibility for a campsite among the cramped city
buildings.
David came to the
first alley way along his path and peered down it. His spirits sank even
more when he saw what it contained. It was crammed with dumpsters and
garbage cans. There was garbage everywhere. Wet newspapers, bottles, old
and rotten food from a few restaurants. David noticed a bum down at the
other end of the alley. He was just standing there swaying around,
drunk from the bottle he held in his hand. He took swig from his drink
then staggered out of the alley into the other street. David was glad he
was gone.
He took a few slow
steps in to get a closer look at everything even though every instinct
in his body told him to forget about this place and look somewhere else.
That feeling started to win over until he looked up higher at the
building tops. Most of them were very high but there were some that were
only one or two stories and David thought he might be able to climb up
on those to sleep.
He looked down lower at
one of the closer buildings to see if there was anything he could use to
climb up. There were a couple drainage pipes going up the side. No,
they looked too flimsy to climb David thought. Then he considered
stacking some of the wooded pallets and garbage cans on top of one of
the dumpsters. That was no good either, it wouldn't be sturdy enough.
David new if he was going to get up there he was going to need a rope of
some kind, and after he thought about it for a moment he knew exactly
were he could find one.
The bay was only a few
blocks away and David remembered seeing some rope there when he passed
it earlier. He remembered seeing some rope lying in an old broken skiff.
David didn't waste anymore time surveying the alley and turned around
walking out at a fast pace. It was pretty late now and if he was going
to get back here before dark with the rope he would have to move fast.
The bay was only about a fifteen minute walk from here but when your
desperate and homeless, the looming darkness of the night seems to bare
down on you much faster and every minute is a rush to get shelter and
security.
He made it through the
swarms of pedestrians again and reached the dock where he saw the broken
skiff with the rope in it. The strong, putrid sea air hit him hard as
he neared the water. It was quite refreshing to be here instead of the
intimidating city to walk out of the cramped buildings and watch the sky
open up over the water.
Standing on the shore
with all the wide-open space around him made David feel like he had
escaped an unyielding pressure that the large building and scary people
seemed to impose on him. He thought maybe he should try and find a place
here to sleep instead. Then he noticed how cold it was out here. The
wind wasn't blowing very hard but it still had a frosty bite to it and
there weren't any structures to block the cold air and wind
sufficiently.
"Well that settles
that." He said while reaching down into the skiff and grabbing the
coiled up rope. David guessed that he could come back here later and
find a spot to sleep on a warmer day. Then he snatched up the rope and
slung it under his right arm, turned around and headed back.
The alley was a lot
darker when he got back due to the ending day. But there were less
people on the street that might spot him at his mischievous activity.
David stepped a few yards in right up to the one story building with the
flimsy water drains and big green dumpster. It was a very old brick
building that must have been constructed in the twenties or thirties. It
looked like it could have been an old floral shop. David could just
barley make out a large painting of flowers on the bricks. The image was
faded and hardly visible.
Most of the buildings
around the old flower shop were from a later time. The one next to it
looked to be from the 60's. It had a vintage appeal to it but it wasn't
as detailed or aesthetically beautiful as the flower shop. It had flat
and smooth concrete walls that were painted a dull green, with marks and
flecks of the paint chipped away revealing the older paint underneath
which fit the drab colors of the sixties.
David wondered how many
old buildings like the flower shop were demolished to make way for the
newer, more cost effective ones. How many new buildings with their more
ambitious owners and better products ran the businesses and people out
of establishments like the flower shop, leaving it vulnerable to
destruction. There were no signs of recent activity when David looked
inside its dark window. 'This place looks like it's been out of business
for a long time.' he thought while untangling the rope. He felt sorry
for this long forgotten place, and knew that he wouldn't have any
trouble with anyone inside for the owner had abandoned it long ago. It
gave him a painfully comfortable sensation like he could do what ever he
wanted here. A mixed feeling of freedom and pity came over him.
After he straitened out
the rope he started to tie golf ball size knots in it about two feet
apart, Then he picked up a good portion of the rope in his left arm,
held the end of the rope in his left hand, then gave a good heave and
tossed the end of the rope up to the top of the building. It struck a
metal utility pole that was attached to the corner of the structure. The
rope came coiling back down bouncing off David's head and on to the
ground.
"Try, try again." David
mumbled under his breath. He picked up the rope again coiling four or
five loops in his right hand. He tossed that portion of the rope up
again and it uncoiled as it flew through the air. This time it cleared
the roof and came hurtling back down to the ground over the corner. The
middle of the rope was secured to the top of the building by the utility
pole. David walked over to the end of the rope that was dangling from
the corner and tied it to the large water pipes that were against the
wall. Then he tugged on the other end of the rope to make sure it was
strong enough and to see if it would stay in place. It did.
David held on to the
rope and looked around to make sure no one was watching him. Then he
lifted his legs planting them against the building and started to pull
himself up the rope with his arms. It was slow going but he scaled the
rope until he reached the top. David reached over and grabbed the other
side of the ledge which was wide across giving him enough leeway to pull
himself up and over. He rolled onto the rough pebble rock surface of
the roof and laid there panting for a minute trying to catch his breath.
David was afraid that
the people in the adjacent building would see him so he got to his feet
and quickly pulled up the rope. He left the rope there in a big jumble
and walked away from the edge of the building and out of the light. He
concealed himself in the veil of darkness that the higher building next
door gave and under a water tower that was standing on the roof. There
he remained, peering out from the shaded cross sections of the water
tower supports like a wild animal hiding in trees.
He looked out at the
windows of the building across the alley. All of them were dark and
lifeless, but before he could look away a light in one of the windows
blinked on. David brought his focus down to it and saw a woman appear
with nothing but a towel wrap around her. She sat down in front of a
vanity mirror and started to take off her make up.
David was unnoticed by
the woman. She went about with what seemed to be her nightly routine and
David was captivated by her sole presents. The glowing window gave
David a sense of warmth despite how cold he was and the woman became his
entertainment for the night.
David watched her rub
and stroked a cloth against her face, reaching down every so often for a
new cloth and bringing it up again. After she was done with that she
picked up a wide brush and started running it through her blonde hair.
Her movements and activity had no sound and it felt like David was
watching a silent movie, a relaxing old silent movie. The orangy light
of the window was like a warm soft contrasting glow against the dim and
blueish cold looking bricks of the outside wall.
David went unnoticed by
the woman. He watched her for about five minutes until she finally got
up and walked out of view. The light in her room blinked off and the
window became as dark as the building surrounding it.
David looked around to
take in where he was and to see if there might be anything else that
might be as interesting as the woman in the window. There wasn't. A few
odd shaped windows on the higher building attached to the one he was
standing on and a couple metal vents sticking out of the roof were the
only things in view.
After David concluded
there was nothing else to see or do he decided it was time for bed. He
took off his back pack and threw it on the ground, pulled off a rolled
up sleeping bag that was bungee corded to the top, and unrolled the
sleeping bag out on the ground next to the water tower. David looked
around a bit more as he unzipped and got inside his sleeping bag.
'This place is
depressing' he thought, still kind of regretting his choice to run away
from the shelter. He just wanted to fall asleep fast. The sooner the
night was over the better, and he would get up as early as he could and
get out of this place.
As bas as it was, at
least he wasn't being abused anymore he reasoned. That 'kids' shelter
was no place for a kid and David regretted that he had been there for so
long. David was now at the age that would be coming into manhood for a
normal person, but David wasn't normal. He had not had proper guidance
or guardians. He had not had sufficient education academically or
morally. He was just going off the natural morality and wisdom a person
was born with, the wisdom of a seventeen year old and that was a scary
confusing and volatile state of existence. He still really thought of
himself as a kid because that is the way he has always been treated and
no one has ever told him otherwise. In fact trying to break away from
his childhood was one of the reasons he ran away, but now he was
definitely starting to regret it.
He laid there and tried
to focus his thoughts on the next day. Tomorrow he thought he would
continue to look for a better place to sleep, and then a better place
after that, trying as hard as he could not to have to go back to the
sweat shoppish like foster home. He decided he would stay homeless and
take the lesser of two evils.
With only his head
sticking out of the sleeping bag David closed his eyes. "This isn't so
bad." he mumbled. Then the young man fell asleep in that bad place.Continue to Chapter 2 >
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