Dangerous place, the street. One minute the person you drink with is your friend; the next thing you know, he’s kicking the shit out of your wife. So, you jump on her back to protect her and the person keeps kicking. He gets your eye and your brain, what’s left of it. Now you cannot think or see and you haven’t got a place to live.
Sounds romantic. Sleeping under the stars. No alarms to wake up to, unless it’s the police. No rent. No expenses. No utilities. No bathrooms to clean. Throw your clothes away and get new ones, err, old ones, but new to you ones. Free medical care. Could be a life for the young, for a while. Hipdom. When you pass 50, it’s a drag. And you could be hurt.
I got the hearsay medical report. No need to share it, except to say both receive top drawer care. She’s sleeping on a chair in his room while receiving treatment. No one at the hospital looks askance at them because of their social status and impermanent roots. All just want them to be well. While I visited, an occupational therapist asked him where he lived, checking on his awareness of time and place, “… in the woods,” he replied. Posted these images to let people who have access to computers see how their doing. Others who don’t live in the hood of Burlington and who have less sensitivity or sympathy for those without much who do, perhaps this will send you to the food bank or your checkbook.
No idea who did it or why. Doesn’t matter right now. A fight can be just a side glance or a comment away. Can’t ask how the day went. They all are pretty much the same, just staying alive. Can’t really ask about the family, most don’t have one or how’s the new car drive, no one has one of those either.
The community shares the pain. I heard about this tragedy while walking in City Hall Park. That’s where it happened. People have concerns for Maggie and Dave. They have some problems, but live their lives for one another. You may not understand their love for each other, but it’s palpable when you are around them.
Nothing to do but pray or shake your head, if that’s what you do when you cannot understand earth people’s inhumanity to one another, pray for the survivors here and pray it won’t happen again. But it will.
