Now, rain is threatening to fall outside. Karrie is standing out in front of the library, holding her sign. In an effort to cater to the visually impaired, she has a two-sided sign. When people seem to be squinting to read her text, she flips it over to the "easy-eye" side, which is condensed and scribed in larger , thicker letters.
The situation is this:
Karrie has to go to court on her 11 charges on December 31st. ("They always give me courtdates on holidays, and then the courthouse isn't open and they let me go...")
I have expressed my opinion that, in their sweeping effort to clean up St. Augustine so that the tourists won't be panhandled, have to watch a man or woman consume a beer and/or urinate into a bush, wheather simultaneously or not, they have given her enough wiggling room to wiggle her way out of the city and not come back, ever.
The only logic that I can see in the judge's release of her is for this reason. The judge feels bad perhaps about the 'justice' which it will be incumbent upon her to mete out to Karrie when the courtdate comes. The judge might be showing mercy.
The fact remains that Karrie must either show up for court on the 31st, or flee the jurisdiction.
That gives her 4 weeks to be around here.
Myself, I will be in a similar boat soon. I am not prospering enough in this town, which is trying to run off street performers and street people in general and has relegated them to areas where only the savvy tourists can find them, to consider "paying my debt to society" in order to have the priveledge to continue living here.
Last night, I played and made 2 dollars. I got a late start, and then went to eat at the shelter, which took away time which might have been spent on the venture.
A lady at the market gave me 10 dollars, after asking if we had enough blankets. I woke up with $12.43, mostly because of her generosity. I knew enough to spend $3.17 on beer before returning to camp, to forego the enevitable, and since the 10 bucks was earmarked for the two of us, I suppose.