Chapter 86

Last night I ran away from him to go hide in my usual place. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t say anything and I had already made a fool of myself. Every time I think back to how I pulled his beard, I feel my cheeks burn with embarrassment.

There are a couple of nice homeless people here, but it isn’t easy to find them. Not because they’re bad by nature, but because all they have is what they bring along with them or what they’ve found, and if someone tries to take their things, they become overprotective and occasionally a little aggressive. Fortunately that didn’t happen to me. Julia and Marcus welcomed me into their alley, and I was allowed to stay close to their bin to warm up.

They even gave me a flattened cardboard box to cover myself with during the night.

This morning I washed as well as I could in the bathroom of a bar Julia suggested I use. Then I went in search of a job, but I found nothing.