A Heart Without A Home: A memoir about homelessness through the eyes of a child by Nichole Carpenter

Author:Nichole Carpenter [Carpenter, Nichole]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Nichole Anne Carpenter
Published: 2016-03-07T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

Madge tucked away their foil, straws, and lighter in the truck's glove box, and Nichole settled in the middle seat between her parents and buckled her seat belt. Nichole patted her dad's hand as it rested on the steering wheel. "Where are we going to sleep tonight, Daddy?" She asked.

"Oh, that is right!" He lifted his head and looked at Nichole. "We need to check out the field that lady was telling us about."

Andy shifted the truck into drive and pulled away from the park. He took the freeway until he spotted the c\City's water tower. "It is over there," Andy pointed and took the next exit off the freeway. They had to weave up and down streets until they reached the street that led to the City's water tower. There was a gate around most of the field under the tower but there was an opening just large enough to fit their truck. Before pulling into the field, Andy pulled the truck to the side of the road and got out to check it out on foot.

Andy walked through the opening in the gate and scanned the area. In the corner, along one side of the fence, a few tents were set up. If anybody was in them, they made no effort to come out to meet him. Andy walked in a full circle. He liked how the fence provided privacy without trapping them in. After his inspection, he strolled back to the truck and climbed in.

"It looks pretty good," Andy shared with Madge and Nichole. "We can use the tarp cover we found and sleep in the back like a real bed again."

"Are you sure we will not be disturbed?" Madge asked.

"Yeah, there are some tents, but they are all spread apart like everyone leaves each other alone," Andy reassured her. "In fact, if there is any trouble, we would have a lot more lookouts."

Madge nodded that she was willing to sleep there for the night.

Since the sun was almost setting, they decided to start setting up for the night right away. Andy shifted the truck into drive and drove onto the field through the narrow opening. He rolled the truck slowly over the dry cracked dirt that covered the entire field, except for the occasional weed that managed to peek its head through. Andy drove the truck to the side of the field where nobody else was and parked.

Andy jumped out of the driver’s seat, pulled the large tarp from the bed of the truck and began shaking it out. He spread it out on the ground behind the truck and tossed it from side to side and flipped in over until he had found the front and back for it to fit over the truck.

Meanwhile, Madge was arranging their ever-growing collection of blankets and sleeping bags in the bed of the truck. Every single time they had gone dumpster diving she had gathered a new blanket that someone else had thrown out. Now she was

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.