Crash by Lesley Choyce

Author:Lesley Choyce
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUV039070, JUV002070, JUV013020
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Published: 2013-10-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

I couldn’t do it at first. Beg for money. I really couldn’t. I hung out behind a donut shop and waited to see what came out the back door, hoping there was food headed for a Dumpster or something. My instincts were good. Around noon, the unsold baking from the day before was tossed. I can’t tell you how good they tasted. Chocolate donuts. Blueberry muffins. Enough for me and Ozzie, and I stashed some in my pack. Not exactly health food, but it was a start.

In the afternoon, I knew I had to get up my courage to talk to strangers. My line was lame, and I felt like a really bad actor. “Get a job,” one guy in a suit said. “Get off the street and stop bothering people,” one finely dressed woman said. When I saw cops coming my way, I held my head up and walked on by. The best I could do was mumble something to people passing by, and once in a while someone would hand me a quarter or a couple of dimes without making eye contact. It was brutal. Sometimes it was just nickles. Who the hell gives a homeless person nickles? But it was sinking in. I was homeless. And pretty helpless when it came to bumming money from people.

By six o’clock I had $23, but it had taken me almost all day to get it. And ten of it had come from Ethan. I headed to the coffee shop, tied up Ozzie outside and went in for a coffee and sandwich. Yeah. Kids hung out here because you could get coffee and an egg-salad sandwich for $2.99, and they didn’t charge tax. I was afraid to leave Ozzie alone, so I took my meager meal outside and sat down on the sidewalk, my back against the wall. I tried begging some more but had no luck. I just didn’t have it in me.

At 11:45 I went in the door beside the coffee shop and up the stairs. I knocked on the door of apartment five. Crazy Eddy was wearing a bathrobe and had a shower cap on his head. He was maybe thirty-five and had a bulging stomach and kind of bugged-out eyes.

“Ethan said I might be able to crash here tonight,” I said.

“You got twenty bucks?”

I showed him a baggie with the ten and a bunch of change.

“Okay,” he said. Then he looked down at Ozzie, who was sitting quietly beside me. “Who’s this?” Eddy asked.

“His name’s Ozzie.”

“I don’t usually take dogs.”

“Ozzie’s the sweetest dog you’ll ever meet. I promise.”

Eddy bent down, grabbed Ozzie’s muzzle and put his face right up to the dog’s in a pretty aggressive way. But Ozzie didn’t flinch. Eddy stayed like that for a couple of seconds, and I almost thought he was going to hurt Ozzie. But then he patted Oz on the head and stood up. “Sleep on the floor—you and the dog. Not on the furniture. And no eating my food.

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