A Short Story Series By Adnan Baig

“Jim? Jim you up? Comon we gotta get going.”

                “We… we’re soaking wet!”

                “Yeah. Bag got blown away or something. We gotta find some place to warm up.”

                “I miss the car!”

                “Forget about the car. We’ll get a new one.”

                “How? We’ve only got like one dollar between us.”

                “Lets just focus on getting warm first. Common lets get outta here.”

                The two crawl out of the hole and an old man notices them as he approaces.

                “You two ok?”

                “We’re fine.” Says Tom assuming trouble.

                “You know there’s a homeless shelter just down the street right?”

                “So we just slept in a wet hole for nothing?” James asks.

                The old man pauses for a second, assessing the pair. “Look, here’s some money for food. Just go down the street and take a right but don’t show them your money because they give out free food. They have cloathes too.”

                “Thanks sir!” James hobbles over and takes the money. “Look Tom! $20, that’s more than we’ve seen in a while!”

                Tom looks at the old man. “Thank you sir. That means a lot.”

                “Well you better hurry up. They open soon and you two could do with some dry cloathes.” The old man gives a slow nod as he walks off.

                “Tom, a shelter! That’s an awful lot better than a whole in the wall! You think they got pie? I think they got pie.”

                Tom laughs. “We haven’t even seen the place yet. Let’s get there first.”

                The pair wring out as much water from their cloathes as they can and head down the street to the shelter. As they arrive a man is just opening up. The man turns around and notices the brothers.

                “Woa! You two look like you’ve had rough night!”

                The pair are now too cold to speak. They just shiver and nod.

                “Come inside, we have showers and cloathes. Eh, I’m afraid no hot water though. The city cut it off ‘cause we did’nt make last months rent. It’ll be back up soon though, once we get enough donations.”

                The two quickly go inside and get cleaned up. The shelter worker gives them fresh dry cloathes.

                “That looks better, sorry about the water again but we do have soup to warm you up. We’re using camping stoves, people sometimes donate the gas cans for em.”

                “Thanks. Soup’ll be great. I’m Tom and this is my Brother James.”

                “Carter.” The man say’s. “You two can come here any time during the day but we lock up at night around 11:30 for anyone that wants to sleep in and then open up again at 8. Here you go, I’ts chicken. My own recipie.” The man hand the two a bowl each and some bread.

                James finally warmed up joins the conversation. “You ever do pie? I love pie!”

                “Jim!” Tom says sternly.

                The worker laughs. “Well, sometimes on Fridays if we have enough money we do order in. It doesn’t happen often though, about once a month.”

                “Hmm.” James pulls a wry smile.

                “Eat your soup Jim and show some respect.” Says Tom.

                “It’s ok.” Says the worker. “You’ve had a rough time I can see. Eat as much as you need and come see me if you need anything. I’m gonna go help the others.”

                The man goes out of the mess room and into the main hall. Tom and James finish up their soup and then walk out to the main hall.

                “It’s not the biggest.” Says Carter. “But it’s safe and it’s warmer than the streets. We don’t let anyone in if they’re drunk or high.”

                “Well it’s a hell of a lot better than a hole in wall.” Says Tom.

                “Better than the car too.” Says James.

                “You two have a car?”

                “Had a car. The….”

                “It got stolen!” Tom buts in.

                James looks at Tom and reads between the lines. “It was all we had.”

                “Right. I’m sorry to hear that. Well we don’t have a car to give you but you have a place to sleep and once a week we have a job councillor visit to try and get people jobs. In fact he’s due tomorrow. Don’t go anywhere after we open up, he usually comes early, about 9ish.”

                “Councillor?” Tom goes quiet for a second.

                “We could do with some money that’s for sure!” Says James. Tom says nothing.

                “Well, stick around and I’ll introduce you tomorrow. If you wanna help out here you’re more than welcome to. It’s a heck of a lot better than being outside in the cold and you can eat as much as you like. We don’t have much money but people are always donating food!”

                “Sure! Why not.” relied James.

                “Great! Well I’m about to clean the showers and the bathrooms, why don’t you help me with that and we can get it done in half the time.”

                “Lead the way.” Says Tom, not used to people being nice to him.

                The trio proced to cleaning the bathrooms and shower stalls and then the kitchen area. Before long it’s dinner time and a fresh batch of food donations comes in. Sandwhiches and drinks from the local coffee shop.

                “They have to throw out what they don’t sell at the end of each day so they just bring it here instead. Go ahead, take whatever you want.” Says Carter.

                Tom and James eat their fill and then Carter shows them where they can sleep for the night. Two military style caping beds with blankets neatly folded and placed on the bed underneath the pillow.

                “You’ll need to fold your sheets in the morning like this. We encourage everyone to do it as a way of keeping ourselves disciplined. It helps for when people get their own places.” Says Carter.

                “I guess that’s fair enough.” Says Tom.

                “Thanks for everything Carter! See you in the morning.” Says James. Carter nods smiling and goes to tend to the others.

                “Tom look… blankets. We didn’t even have those in the car.” Says James.

                “Not since you lost em.” Says Tom.

                “Well at least there’s no bars this time.”

                “Oh, there’s always bars kid. You’ll see soon enough.”

                “What’s that supposed to mean?”

                “Nothing, don’t worry about it, lets get some rest.”

                The pair go to sleep for the night and have the best nights sleep they’ve had in a long long time!

                “Tom! Tom! Get up! I had a dream Tom…”

                “What?” Tom says, half awake.

                “There was pie! Lots and lots of pie! And we had a roof over our heads, our very own roof! Do you think it’s a sign? I think it’s a sign! Did you have a dream too?”

                “I had a dream, yeah.”

                “Well… what was yours?”

                Tom just stays quiet as he get out of bed.

                “Tom!”

                “Don’t worry about it kid. It wasn’t a good dream.”

                “Oh. Mum and Dad again?”

                “I said don’t worry about it.”

                “Ok, don’t worry Tom. She’ll come back one day, she did the best she could.”

                Tom looks at James like he’s crazy.

                “The best she could? Look where we are Jim! She left us for dead with a monster! If I didn’t get us outta there we coulda been dead by now!”

                “Ok ok! I’m sorry. Let go get some food and forget about the dreams.”

                The pair go and make some porrige and Carter opens up from outside.

                “Tom, James.” Carter smiles. “You’re up already. Good, the councillor’ll be here in about an hour. I’ll introduce you to him he’s called Paul. He’ll want to know some things about you to see what kind of job would be best for you depending on what you’re good at. When’s the last time you two worked?”

                “Errm, we’ve never had a job sir.” Says James.

                “Oh. How long have you two been on the streets?” Asks Carter.

                “We…” James looks over at Tom who subtly shakes his head. “Nevermind. I think we’ll just talk to Paul when he comes if that’s ok.”

                Carter senses he might be hitting a nerve. “Right, ok well he’ll be here soon, go ahead and have some more to eat, you must be hungry.”

                Tom and James have some more porrige and it isn’t long before Paul walks in to the main hall.

                “Paul good morning.”

                “Carter hi. How’s it been?”

                “Great, Travis has gone full time now, he’ll be able to get a room before long.”

                “Fantastic! He’s come so far, I have to contragulate him, is he here?”

                “Nope, he’s off at work haha.”

                Carter and Paul both laugh.

                “But I do have two other people who are looking for a job.”

                “Oh?”

                Carter walks Paul into the dining area to the table where Tom and James are seated.

                “Paul, This is Tom and James, they’re brothers and they’re been having quite a rough time. If you have anything available I’m sure they’d love to hear about it. Tom, James, This is Paul who I was telling you about.”

                “Hi Paul. I’m James”

                “Hi James. Paul.” They shake hands. “And that means you must be Tom.”

                Tom looks at James for a second and then turn his head to Paul. “Yep.” He doesn’t stick his hand out.

                “Oh come on Tom, there’s no need to be like that, Paul seems ok.”

                Paul stays quiet for a second then looks at Paul. “So, You’re gonna get us jobs.”

                “I hope so. We’ll look into your interests but if you’re just looking for anything we do have a factory job available. There’s a few slots available so you’d be able to work together if you like.

                “That sounds great!” Says James. “Tom whatta ya say?”

                Tom takes a deep breath in and out through his nose before lifting his gaze off the floor. “The pay?”

                “Well you’d have to negotiate that with Gideon. He’s the manager floor manager who’ll be doing the interviews. I don’t think it’ll be that much to be honest as he usually pays people without an address cash in hand but it’s a foot in the door at least.

You can work your way up from there. Gideon himself used to be homeless once upon a time. It’s why he like to help others in the same situation.”

                “Ok, set it up.” Says Tom, warming up to the idea.

                “Great! I’ll ask Gideon to add you both to the interview list. I believe he’s doing interviews this Friday. He’ll give Carter a call to confirm. He’s hired plenty of people from here before so I don’t think you’ll have a problem gettin a job.

                The factories not far. It’s in the industrial estate off 52nd street, about two streets down from the old prison.”

                Tom and James look at each other with slight concern but say nothing.

                “Alright, I’ve gotta go see the others now but it’s been nice meeting you two. Best o luck with the interviews!”

                “Thanks Paul! Best o luck to us too haha.” James laughs.

                Paul goes off to see the other homeless people in the main hall. James looks at Tom concerened.

                “Right next to the prison.” Tom says.

                “I know, but it’ll be alright I think. It’s not like it’s owned by the prison guards.” Says James.

                “They’ll be close enough. If they find out we’re working there they’ll be payin us visits just to fuck with us.”

                “It’ll be alright Tom, they won’t know we’re working there, and even if they do it’s an actual job, it’s not like we’re robbing the place.”

                “I hope so.” Tom says, unconvinced.

                Carter walks in with a tray full of dirty breakfast dishes. “Hey you two, how’d it go? Did you find anything you liked?”

                “Factory job.” Says James. “Near the prison.”

                Tom widens his eyes at James to try and shut him up.

                Carter laughs a little. “Oh it’s ok. You’re not the only ones in here that have been inside. I did time myself once. It won’t be a problem for you to get a job at the factory. Gideon doesn’t look at people past, he just wants to know if you can work. He’s great. You’ll do fine just stay relaxed and be yourselves.”

                “Thanks.” Says James. “You need help with those dishes?”

                “Sure.” Says Carter.

                James walks over to Carter who then turns towards Tom still sitting at the table. “And there’s a whole lotta clothes that need washing too if you could help.”

                Tom looks over at the pile of cloathes by the washing machines completely covering the baskets they were dumped in. He cracks his knuckles and then walks over and starts loading the machines.

                “Thank you Tom. I’ll get somebody to come and help you once I put these dishes down.”

                “Paul said you should get a call sometime about our interviews. He said Gideon should be doing interviews this Friday.” James says to Carter.

                “That sounds great! I’ll let you two know as soon as he does.” Says Carter.

                Tom and James get on with their tasks helping out Carter and it isn’t long before the phone rings. James looks over at Tom who isn’t even paying attention.

                Carter stops washing dishes and walks over to the phone, drying his hands on his apron before picking up the phone. “Lakeside homeless shelter, Carter speaking… Oh Gideon, hi how are you?… Yes Paul was here earlier… That’s right two gentlemen, yes Tom and James…”

                Tom stops unloading the washing and looks over. James is looking at Carter like a dog waiting to hear ‘fetch’.

                Carter still in conversation: “Oh you would? That’s great! I’ll give them the good news. Thank you a bunch and say hi to Margrate for me won’t you… by now…”

                Carter put’s the phone down and turns around with a great big smile on his face. “He wants to see you this afternoon!”

                “YES!!! YES!!! YES!!! I knew it! I knew it!!” James is unable to control his exitement.

                Tom smiles and laughs a little. “Alright kid… alright.”