 |
| Click image to access installments |
Wayne looked down at the smiling face and almost laughed. “I know my way around, if that’s what you’re asking.”
With a lot of doubt in his voice, the short stranger said, “Anybody can get their hands on a map. But I saw what you looked like when the cops dropped you off yesterday. I can show you a safe place to sleep and hang out if you would like to avoid being beaten up every night.”
Wayne admitted that his sense of safe and unsafe was in question. “What’s it going to cost me?”
The man laughed and put out his hand. “My name is Roy, by the way.”
Wayne took the man’s hand. “I’m Wayne.”
The shorter man started walking and Wayne fell into step. “If you haven’t noticed, I’m not a big man. I had a partner that was about your size, and I had no problems for a year, but then he moved on. Now I’m left at the mercy of every bum with frustrations looking for someone to take them out on. I’ll show you how to survive on the streets of Memphis – if you’ll protect me.”
Wayne thought it over for a few minutes. “I can’t say how long I’ll be in town, but you’ve got a deal for as long as I’m here.”
Roy patted Wayne on the back. “Every day I don’t get my ass kicked is a good day. Come on, we need to go north on 3rd Street. I have a cubby hole up there.”
They moved west on Union toward the Mississippi River and at 3rd Street turned north. Within a block, they could smell barbecue. Roy looked up at Wayne and laughed. “The smell’s from the Rendezvous Resturant, and it can drive you crazy in the morning when they start cooking.”
Wayne’s mouth was watering. “I can’t remember the last time I ate Rendezvous ribs.”
Roy walked a little faster. “You’ll want to stay clear of the Rendezvous. The area around it belongs to ‘the five’.”
Wayne quickened his step to keep up. “What ‘five’?”
Roy looked over at Wayne and checked out his walk. “Are you a cop? You don’t seem to know much. You haven’t been on the streets very long, have you?”
Wayne stopped in his tracks. “What makes you think that?”
Roy didn’t back down – he obviously needed to know who Wayne was before he shared any secrets with him. “You’re not one of us, that’s for sure. Your walk is too upright. You’re not used to keeping your head bowed and not looking people in the eye. Your step is cocky and challenging. All of this can get you killed out here. So if you’re not a cop, you’re a fool. And both of those things are dangerous for me.”
Taylor had given Wayne a cover story and now he understood why he needed it. “The company in Little Rock that I worked at for 10 years closed its doors. I was out of work for over a year. My wife took our son and left me, the car was repo’ed, and the house was foreclosed on. The next thing I knew, a month ago, I was on the street with 20 dollars in my pocket.” He stopped, and Roy did too.
Roy put his hand on Wayne’s arm and moved him along the street. “Like so many others, you thought Memphis might give you a chance to get on your feet. But you’re a fool for coming here.”
Wayne had warmed to his cover story and almost believed it himself. “There was nothing in Little Rock. I thought anyplace would be better. But after being beaten up and robbed, I’m not so sure anymore.”
Roy smiled and shook his head. “You might’a been better off in Arkansas, but hell, you ain’t there. You’re in Tennessee, and it isn’t the greatest place for a black man down on his luck.”
Wayne grudgingly admitted it to himself: Roy was right about that.
Roy stopped them at the entrance to the alley beside the Sterick Building, which had once been one of the largest office buildings in Memphis but had now lain empty for years. “Stand still and look around. Let’s make damn sure no one is watching us.”
Wayne looked up and down the street until Roy suddenly pulled his arm and they hurried down the alley. Halfway down the alley, Roy nudged Wayne behind a big blue dumpster against the wall. He removed a key from behind a loose brick and unlocked a cable looped around one of the wheels. Together, they pushed the dumpster away from the wall. Roy removed a metal plate from a hole that had once been a basement window. He patted Wayne on the back. “Go on, get in, we have to hurry.”
Wayne slid into the basement and Roy reached in and freed the cable. The cable ran under the metal plate through a crack in the concrete and was attached to a hook inside. He reattached the lock end to the dumpster and crawled through the opening after Wayne. Then he replaced the metal cover, put his foot against the wall, and pulled the cable tight. Once he heard the dumpster bump against the wall, he hooked the cable back to the inside wall.
He looked up and smiled at Wayne. “That’s the only way into this building. There is so much asbestos in here, they sealed it like a tomb.”
Wayne had seen enough warnings on TV to know what asbestos was. “Are you crazy? That stuff can kill us!”
Roy had already turned on his little flashlight and was climbing some stairs. He hollered over his shoulder, “You’ll be safe as long as you don’t bust down any of the walls or fuck with the pipes. People worked in this building 20, 30 years and had no problems. It’s when you start breaking the shit up that the dust gets in your lungs.”
On the third floor, Roy led the way down a hall. With his flashlight, he pointed to a room on the street side. “In this room, I have a few holes in the wood over the windows to keep an eye on the outside.” He pointed to the room across the hall. “Over here I found all these moving pads that were used to pack around desks and other shit. Makes it nice on a cold night. Down here is the bathroom.”
Wayne was surprised. “There’s running water in the building?”
They entered the bathroom and Roy pointed the flashlight up. “You could say that.” A garden hose ran from a pipe on the ceiling. “The city can’t turn off the water used to fight a fire, so even though the main is closed, the fire line has water, and I tapped into it.”
They re-entered the hall, and Wayne stopped and stared in amazement down its dark distance. “You’re one smart bastard, Roy. I’d have never put this shit together in a million years.” Roy gave him a smug little grin.
Roy had gone into the room that had the holes to the outside and was stacking some pallets next to the windows. Some light from outside came into the room through some cracks around the wood. “You should see the view from the top. I went up there once, but 29 floors is a lot more climbing than I can do these days.”
Wayne sat down and put an eye to one of the holes in the wood. He had a view of about a half-block in either direction. He turned back around to see that a wine bottle had appeared in Roy’s hand. “Where the hell did that come from?”
Roy offered the wine to Wayne, but Wayne shook his head. “No, that’s okay. I’m good.”
Roy pushed the bottle at him. “No, you’re not. We have no food to eat and no chance to get anything until the restaurants close tonight. This’ll carry you over until then.”
Wayne reluctantly took the bottle, turned it up and swallowed a big mouthful. It was the worst tasting wine he had ever drunk. Gagging, he handed it back to Roy, who laughed loudly. “Not too good, is it?”
Wayne was swallowing in an attempt to keep the wine down. “That is the shittiest wine I have ever put in my mouth.”
Roy put the metal cap back on the bottle. “Maybe it is, but it’s your best friend out here. It’ll warm you in the cold, feed you, and allow you to sleep. Sleep is what we need to do now. It’ll be cold tonight and we’ve got some walking to do.”
Wayne said, “But tell me who this ‘five’ are you referred to.”
Roy’s answer didn’t really surprise Wayne. He should have known.
Wayne felt a hand shaking him. No sunlight came into the room through the cracks now, and Wayne could just make out Roy’s face. “Damn, what time is it?”
Roy looked through a hole onto the street. “There aren’t many people on the street, so I guess it’s 9 or 10 o’clock. We got maybe an hour’s walk.”
Wayne pulled on his coat. “Are we going past any parks?”
“Why you want to know about any parks?” Roy was waiting in the hall with a small flashlight.
Wayne came into the hall and joined Roy. “I was thinking, next summer, we could camp out in one.”
Roy led the way down the stairs. “Nobody goes into the parks. Only bad things happen in parks. There are drug deals, rapes, and murders, but no street people – we stay clear of them.”
Over the next few days, Wayne’s veteran companion taught him a thing or two more about life on the streets.
| Copyright © 2019, 2020 by Ed Rogers |
No comments:
Post a Comment