These gray walls seem as if they are
going to swallow me. I stare at them all day long; except for when they let me
out in the sun as if I where a plant and needed to photosynthesize. My body
ached a lot and there are days when I can´t even turn over on my cot- this
cannot be referred to as a bed. On these
days I was reminded of how I got here.
Mari-Gras, around 3:00 AM in the
morning, my body started aching because it had been a few days since the last
time I was able to buy some drugs; mainly the rock. Living off the streets is really hard and the
rock was what I had to look forward to, besides that, it would keep my stomach
from growling and hurting. The rock helped me to lie down and not be worried
about the weather, people walking by and most importantly, the mosquitoes. How
I hate mosquitoes. You would think that the more I stunk the more they would
stay away, but unfortunately it was the opposite. All these reasons led me to
act and fast.
Quietly and from a short distance, I
had kept an eye on a few places nearby and I noticed that there were a lot of
cul-de-sacs; dead end streets filled with small homes. Here they called them
small villas, but that didn´t fit the description of the word. (By now you
might be thinking that I am illiterate. You are wrong.) I noticed that many of
these cul-de-sacs had gates to keep unwanted people away; however, there was
one that had no gate whatsoever. I spent some time around it to see the people
who would come in and out of it.
Having overheard some of the dwellers
mention that they would be going to the Mari-Gras parties even though they were
prohibited due to the pandemic, so on this day I decided to explore it.
I walked in around 3:00 AM. I was very
quiet although I knew many were not at home. I checked the cars for the alarms.
I noticed that there was this one older car at the end of the street that did not
have an alarm. The hood was turned to the part that was well illuminated. It
seemed as if they were helping me out. I
opened the doors, which are very easy to open nowadays just like a can of beer,
checked for valuable things that I could sell and make some money so I could
buy my drugs. The only things that I was able to take were: the car battery
that would have given me at least 50 bucks; the spare tire which I could also
sell for any amount 'cause it didn't really matter I just needed some money; and
this cool pair of sunglasses; so cool that I thought I would keep them for
myself. Everything else in the car was worthless.
I couldn't carry the battery and the
spare tire at the same time, so I took the battery home and came back for the
spare tire. When I finished ransacking this car, it was around 4:00 AM, so I
just left.
First thing I did was take the
sunglasses to a drug dealer that I usually bought my stuff off of and exchanged
it for a stone which would last me a couple of days. He was grateful for the
exchange and gave me a bigger rock than usual. ‘Don´t use it all at once or
it´ll kill you’. I thought it was funny that everything he sold could kill me
but he was still worried about my life as if he were an older brother or
father. The other people on the streets just said that if I died, it´d be one
customer less. Whatever the reason, I liked it when he said it.
A few weeks later I decided to go back
into the same cul-de-sac and noticed that one of the fancy cars did not have an
alarm on or perhaps the owner had forgotten to turn it on. Once again, these
people were facilitating my life. I was thrilled because it had a really nice
radio and for sure that radio would get me a couple of rocks instead of just
one. As before, I broke into the car, checked for valuables and I didn't see
anything that would be useful or get me some change so I decided to just take
the radio and be on my way.
In the back of my mind, I thought that
this place for sure would have put up a gate at entrance to the cul-de-sac the
street to close off unwanted people. For sure I was an unwanted person, however,
that was not the case in this place. I noticed that the valuables were the
automobiles while some of the homes were a bit run down. It seemed like they
worked hard to have the few things they had. Who was I to judge? I lived on the
streets.
A few more weeks went by and I decided
to go back to that place, which still had no protection. I walked in and
started looking around to see what I could take. I found the first car I had
stolen the battery, the sunglasses and spare tire from but it was turned around
in a different direction which made it harder for me to do the same thing; it
was dark. For sure by now these people had bought a new battery and a new spare
tire. By turning the car around, I realized they knew I could come back and
tried to make it harder for me. Nonetheless, I just let that go and headed
towards the other side where the fancy car I had taken the radio from was. I
noticed that the radio had been replaced, but this time the person had
remembered to turn on the alarm and that would be too risky. Breaking into the
houses would be super hazardous. I just needed stuff to buy drugs, I didn´t
want to hurt anyone.
To my surprise, as I was walking out of
the cul-de-sac, there was a police car at the entrance and I had nowhere to run
to. Apparently, they did not have a gate
to keep out unwanted people, but they did have security cameras. My face was
all over the place and it had been the third time I was wearing the small blue jersey.
If I had known about the camera, I would
have worn a mask. Perhaps I should have, especially because of COVID, but hey, I
have other things to worry about.
So, it looks like I'll be doing some
time for theft and since it is not my first offense, I will be getting more time
in the slammer. I lay here staring at these gray walls. It isn´t that bad- there
is food and shelter. Guess that sometimes you win some and sometimes you lose
some.
Written: March 5, 2022 (Based on an incident
that happened during Mari-Gras to a friend. They have not caught the thief.)
 |
| Google Images |
No comments:
Post a Comment