A Place To Sleep

scene from New Orleans

Peacefull Sit-In
I woke up
In the park, where there are gathered a bunch of people who are protesting in front of City Hall, which sits across the street.
There are tents set up everywhere.
It has something to do with 1% of the population making life miserable for the remaining 99%. They mention banks, insurance companies and others.
I haven't asked any of them specifically why "we" are gathered in the park, for fear of getting an extended lecture which wouldn't end until they felt that I have been converted and joined the cause. It is a good place to sleep, because of the safety in numbers, and the fact that there is care taken to make their "peaceful sit-in" peaceful.
Food is served, brought by different supporters of the cause, or churches. This morning, oatmeal with raisins (or raisins and bananas) was served, along with real butter*, cinnamon* and salt*. (*optional).
This was an excellent breakfast in my opinion, for, I just about lived on oatmeal for a year, when I was self-diagnosing my food allergies. I never got sick of it, nor the feeling of vibrant health that I associate with it.
I was glad for the blandness of oatmeal and didn't mind a little stickyness because of the way it repels bums, who would otherwise join the "cause." wholeheartedly; especially at mealtimes. They are only there in small numbers. Oatmeal, good for a lot of things...
I played on Canal Street for a while the night before, but knocked of at 10p.m., thinking that it was Thursday night, and that I would pace myself going into the weekend. I made about 6 bucks in an hour, and was tempted to just drink it all, but didn't.
It was Friday night, though, and maybe just as well that I called it a night and got some rest because I didn't know what day it was. I liked the way I sounded, though, after having taken a night off when my stuff was trapped in the library storage room.
Sue
Then, up walked Sue, at about 11 p.m., her arms laden with blankets, bags, cats etc.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, appearing surprised to see me.
She had just been harrassed by some guy in a remote part of the park, and was seeking to move closer to others, in order to feel safer. She just happened to pick a spot right by my side. She shouldn't have known it was I, because she had never seen me with the bike before.
She then went on at length about the problem that she had had. Some guy tried to take her stuff and, if it werent' for Kooky waking her up, he might have succeeded.
Sue seems to have a lot of run-ins with people, which she usually attributes to anti-Mexicanism, or the fact that she is a woman. She claims that when she is alone, people give her all kinds of problems, but when they see her with someone else, they leave her alone.
She often points out a guy on the street and tells me that he was harrassing her the night before, yet, seeing her walking with me, didn't even acknowledge her. "If I was by myself, he would have been right in my face, giving me shit!" she has claimed more than once. I think she is afraid of all humanity, at some level.
She said that she hadn't eaten all day. I appologised for eating the Popeye's chicken, the remains of which on the grass next to me giving that fact away. I had carried it with me for a few hours, in case I ran into her and would give it to Kooky. Our encounters have been so random lately that I envisioned the chicken going bad before I saw her again. No sooner than I finised the last breast, then she and Kooky appeared.
I gave her the rest of the dry cereal that I had left from the train ride. She had told me "I don't like cereal" the last time I'd offered it to her, but on this occasion I got a "This is good" mumbled from her lips as she crunched away. Maybe she doesn't like milk...
She gave me a 24 ounce Heineken, which someone had given her, which she didn't want...

One In The Bush
I may have made a mistake in telling her that I saw the counterpart to the bird that she "rescued" from Canal Street, which indeed I did. It walked right up to me, as I sat in front of the insectarium. I recognized it instantly, as being the twin to the bird which Sue was able to corral and relocate to a pond somewhere. She had spoken of a second bird.
She made me swear to her that I had actually seen the bird and wasn't deceiving her. There might be people out there who lie about birds, but I am not one of them.
We had slept side by side, but Sue put her stuff in between us, like a barrier; possibly for appearances, as we were in a kind of community, and Sue might have thought it prudent.
We are somewhere in the limbo between friends and lovers. I no longer buy her things (she chastised me for not bringing her anything back from Mobile, nor anything for Kooky -"sardines, anything!")
She said that she had been distant the night I got back into town because I was so quiet. I bothers her when people don't say much, she said
Hearing her speak fluid Spanish to someone this morning made me realise that if I am going to have a serious relationship with her, I would need to become much more fluent in her language, especially being the lover of expression that I am.