Chapter 19

One night sleeping in a decent bed, a couple of real meals in a house, not a diner, and I’m suddenly thinking about job hunting? Am I getting soft in the head? What happens when he tells me it’s time for me to move on? He knew the answer to that, or at least part of it. If it happened, and he was sure it would, if he did have a job he could afford a cheap place to stay. Because by then, the idea of going back to the streets won’t look so good. I’m not getting any younger. Maybe…

He thanked a man who had dropped a couple of dollars into his cup, and then counted what he’d made so far. It wasn’t much, and he did owe it to Darren to give it all to him. But if I stopped over there, on the way home…He was looking at a near-new shop half a block away, across the street.

Then he snorted softly. “New duds won’t get me a job, even if I want one. I don’t have any references, to start with. Even cheap diners would want something to say I know what I’m doing.”