Charley didn’t want to change the world or anyone’s impression of it. He only wanted to survive every day by being as happy as he possibly could be. He was happy being homeless, happy being forced to panhandle and thankful for the people he met that could be made happy by his presence.
Charley was too smart for school, a natural athlete, and a pain in the ass to his parents. He quit them all in grade nine to live rough. The way he saw it, no one was happy with him, including himself, so he might as well start over. He was right. He was too intelligent to sit in a class, bored, day after day after day. His teachers could do nothing but discipline his behavior borne of that boredom. His parents could do nothing but discipline him for not paying attention and making their lives easier. He liked sports but they didn’t challenge him enough to be a concern. Charley was a typical misfit. So, he left the places he didn’t fit when he was fourteen.
Charley called the day he left his re-birthday; the day he went looking for a place that fit him. He took some camping equipment that had been bought years before, and never used, from his parent’s garage. They wouldn’t miss it. Charley had always been in summer school. He grabbed whatever loose cash he could find to get himself started, a couple of cookies, and walked out the door on Wednesday, May 15.
The transition was easy for him. He found a nice spot on the other side of the river. It was the side that was more industrial and not as developed with parks and big homes. Most of the people who lived rough lived here. There was never as much police pressure here. Charley picked a less favorable spot so he wouldn’t be bothered by the others and settled in nicely. He made friends quickly. No one asked him any questions and he didn’t feel the need to know anything about them. It made it easy to get along.
Most of the people living on the riverbank went into town during the day to do what they had to do to get by. They would leave their camps around 9:30 and cross the bridge. You never knew when they would be back. If someone’s camp was deserted for more than a few days someone would start asking questions and people would start poking around to see if they were in trouble or had just moved on. It was a different type of community that Charley appreciated immediately.
Charley had a different plan than the rest. He didn’t want to go into town like the others. He wanted to stay on the industrial side. After he had laid low for a couple of months, he put his idea to the test. He had been practicing while he was hanging around waiting for the heat to die down a bit. Just a few choreographed dance moves, a bit of gymnastics, a few songs and he was good to go. He knew that there were some plants and facilities nearby that had security lines in the mornings that would make a great venue. People were trapped in their cars, sipping coffee, bored out of their gourds. All he had to do was entertain them a bit and be friendly and they should welcome the reprieve from the morning drab.
It went well from the first day. The weather was nice so people had their windows down to enjoy it. He dressed just ragged enough to make it appear that he was down on his luck. He would do his singing and dancing every once in a while to break the monotony. People seemed happy with his performances. He was never in front of the same cars for long. He would sing, dance, cartwheel, and backflip up and down the line. People would empty the change out of the cup holders and ashtrays. It was a good plan and a good gig. Charley’s favorite plant had more than three hundred cars to get through the gate in the morning. It took them thirty to forty-five minutes to get everyone through. Charley only had to average fifty cents a car to make a good living for someone living rough. For a kid on the lamb, it was pretty good pay for less than an hour’s work. And he was all done before the majority of the campers left in the morning. It left him the entire day to himself.
As soon as he was done panhandling at the plant on his fifth beautiful May 15th morning, he was going to buy himself a two-litre bottle of root beer, an ice cream cake, and a chocolate bar to celebrate his happy re-birthday. He was going to take his haul to his special place on the river bank and finish them all off in a single go. Maybe. He did the same thing every year and he hadn’t made it all the way through everything yet, but there was always hope. One way or the other he was going to enjoy himself and curse his bellyache until it went away.
This morning he had averaged better than fifty cents a car. He had close to a hundred and seventy-five dollars in his pocket and bag. He headed to the gym to shower and change. He kept a membership for sixty bucks a month under an assumed identity. That gave him a safe place to store stuff he didn’t want anyone to find, a place to clean up in the morning, and a place to train. He enjoyed the self-defense classes. There was a harmony to martial arts and boxing. It was like music. It was something he could accomplish for no one but himself.
Once out of the gym, he headed for the Mom-and-Pop on the corner of 87th and McIntyre. He got his root beer and chocolate bar. A big one. A fruit and nut milk chocolate wonder of creation. He hadn’t eaten breakfast this morning to give himself the best advantage over the feast of happy re-birthday. He jogged to Marble Slab.
“Hello, Charley.” Mabel greeted.
“Hello Mabel, give me a peanut butter chocolate mint cake and two spoons, please. I don’t want to be caught short if I break one.” Charley half sang it. He was the only one in the ice cream shop so it didn’t matter.
“Has it been a year already?” Mabel feigned shock and surprise well.
“Yes, it has. I have withdrawn another year from the bank.”
“Well, you certainly wouldn’t know it. You are looking better than a two-scoop every day.” Mabel was never stingy with her flirtations or ice cream analogies.
“Well thank you, Mabel, and right back at you. I swear if I was smart enough, I would find a way to make a Mabel flavour so I could enjoy you even more.” Charley tried to match her flattery and charm but only succeeded because of his age. Mabel thought it was cute that he tried and failed and so gave him pity credit. Charley took it. He liked Mabel.
“So, you think you are going to do it this year?” She asked. She had been in on his challenge from the start. This was her fourth year of supplying the cake and spoons on Charley’s May fifteenths. She was a good enough salesperson to take interest in her customers.
“Well, I ate light last night, and not at all this morning,” Charley started. “I trained extra hard yesterday and today, so, I think, if I ever stood a chance today may be the one. I grew two inches in the last year too. My appetite has been growing right along with me so I might be in for a win this year.”
Charley laid out the logic for his possible victory over the frivolous challenge and it made Mabel chuckle. “Well everyone has to have a goal. What are you going to do if you win?”
“I don’t know, maybe I will take the next step and solve all of mankind’s problems.” Charley threw back.
“I don’t doubt you beating the cake and I certainly don’t doubt you being mankind’s salvation from the self-destructive path we have chosen. If anyone can do it, you can, Charley. You have my utmost confidence and support.” Mabel laid it on thick but with enough respect that Charley received her message of love and hope.
“Well thank you, Mabel. I will report tomorrow on today’s events. Stay tuned.” With that Charley headed for the river bank.
His special riverbank spot was on the north bank. It took in the full sun and had a big flat rock with a big rock on top of it to act as a backrest for a perfect sitting arrangement. It was hard to get to so not many people came here. It had an unobstructed view of the valley and of the homes on the south bank. From this point, Charley could see directly into his parent’s backyard. He brought binoculars with him every year so that he could watch for signs of life.
On his first happy re-birthday, he watched his dad bring out Candy, an odd little black and tan dust mop of a dog, for her morning habitual. His father leaned on the deck rail and lit a cigarette while he waited. He had been quit for years before Charley left. Charley watched him as he smoked. He could see him look over his shoulder as if listening or talking to someone or something inside the screen door. He watched as he crushed out his cigarette and snapped his fingers at Candy. He watched him stop when he looked up and saw him sitting on the opposite bank. Charley knew he was too far away to identify but easy enough to spot as a human sitting on a rock. After a while, his father turned and walked inside.
The next year was the same. His father came out with the dog, smoked a cigarette, and retreated into the house after being called. He had looked across the river and saw a person sitting there. The third year his dad was on the deck when Charley arrived and started into his feast. There was no dog and no interruptions. He stayed there until Charley was full to the gills with ice cream, chocolate, and root beer. He was still there when Charley packed up his leftovers, except for the ice cream cake, and left. Charley could see the age on his father’s face and in his posture. He looked tired and old. He also noted that the dog was not part of the performance. It made sense. The little Pekinese was older than Charley. She had been old for a dog when Charley was living there. She had no doubt passed onto her greener pastures.
When Charley got to his rock this year the backyard was empty. He tied into his cake. This year was different, instead of eating his cake and chocolate bar separately, he broke the bar up and spread it on top of the cake. He figured that way he wouldn’t have to slow down going from one to the other. He would fool himself into not realizing he was full until it was too late and all the cake and bar would be gone. After that, it would just be a matter of drinking the two litres of root beer. Two litres of root beer would be an easy accomplishment and probably necessary to digest two and a half pounds of ice cream and a huge chocolate bar.
Charley looked at his watch in order to time his attempt. It was exactly 10:25. He started in with gusto. It was always this way at the start. He was so hungry and it tasted so good. It usually wasn’t until he was about half to two-thirds of the way through that he started to bog down. The ice cream started to coat his tongue with a layer of peppermint/peanut butter chocolatey slime that threatened to crawl down his tongue and trigger his gag reflexes. This year he never even got that far. When he was just over halfway through, Charley looked up to see two people at the rail of his parent’s deck. He didn’t have to look through his binoculars to know it was his parents. He went back to his cake. But his heart wasn’t in it anymore. He opened his two-litre and took a long pull. It had warmed up enough to be foamy and thicker tasting than when it was cold. When that delectable sweet carbonated gift of the gods hit his belly, Charley reflexively belched. And when he belched, he puked. He puked fast, violently, and long. Charley figured that by the time he was done puking, he was lucky to still have his boots on his feet. He figured that if he hadn’t had them tied on tight, they would have come up with everything else that was in his system.
When the shock wore off, he laughed. He had never experienced spontaneous intestinal expulsion before. He was a mess but he could get clean. And the good news was, he had room for the rest of his feast. He knew it wasn’t an honest win, but he was going to finish off his cake and root beer and take it anyway. He marked the time at the point of vomit commencement, 10:53, and looked across the valley. The two figures were still there. One was waving. He was glad he had met his challenge this year because he couldn’t come back here again. Charley’s world had to change again.
Just as he had promised, he stopped in to see Mabel the next day. He told her about the semi-win.
“Well, technically, I guess, you can say you ate the whole thing,” Mabel teased. “But we both know you won’t be satisfied with it. You are going to be back next year to try again, I know you well enough to know that much.”
“Nope, afraid not Mabel,” Charley started in. “That was the last year of my happy re-birthday feasts. I am moving onto bigger and better challenges.”
“Whoa, that sounds like a serious resolution.” Mabel hadn’t heard Charley like this before. “What have you got planned for yourself?”
“I don’t know. I do know I won’t be planning anything. I usually do what comes up. So far nothing has, but I will be hopping on board the next thing that does. I can say that for a fact.” Charley laid it out as if he was happy about it.
Mabel saw right through him. “What happened, Charley?”
“What do you mean?” Charley was taken off guard. “Nothing happened, it’s just time for a change. I have been doing this routine for four years straight and it’s time for a change.”
“Yeah, right.” Mabel had her serious look on and Charley was in her sights. “You listen up and listen up good Mister Charley, you keep me up to speed on whatever you get up to. I don’t want to be sitting around here wasting my time wondering what happened to the best homeless kid I ever met. I don’t have the patience for it, understand?”
“You know I wouldn’t leave my favorite ice cream maid hanging.” Charley tried teasing his way out of the awkward situation. “I promise to keep you in the loop.”
With that, he said goodbye and left. He knew he would never be going back there again. He knew Mabel would wonder about him for the rest of her time. It was just the way it had to be. He knew that his parents would be sure enough that it was him across the river to start the searching again. They would put his picture in the paper and it would probably be seen by the people who saw him regularly. He probably had two or three days left at the plant lineup before he would have to go dark. Maybe it was time to move to a different city. Cut the ties for good.
I will be anxiously waiting for the next installment. I do not want to be left in Mabel's shoes! Excellent story!!🙂❤️