Night Twenty-Nine

    ****NAMES CHANGED TO PROTECT PORTLAND'S STREET KIDS***** 

We look all over Portland for Kitten Lady's boyfriend but we can't find him. Kitten Lady gets more and more distraught the more we can't find him, saying he's a bad boyfriend for being MIA when her kitten just died. When it gets later she starts to panic thinking he's arrested. This is why I don't date: too much damn work.

We met up with Drama Girl eventually. She had obviously gone to Macy's to get her make up done and probably somewhere else to get her hair done and was talking about moving with Dreadlocks to North Carolina. I have no idea why she was discussing this but whatever; I tuned in and out and mumbled responses when necessary.

Houdini finally shows up saying he was off making money at Llyod Center. (Making money means spanging. Spanging means asking people for change). He comes with weed so she forgives him. They go off to smoke. I'm worried about her sleeping outside but she says she is going to go sleep with her mom under the bridge so I feel a lot more comfortable about that.

I forgot to eat all day because of the stress of putting Tailia down. I've never been good at eating when I'm depressed or upset about something; I'll forget for days sometimes. But when I get up to the shelter it's nacho night and I devour the food handed out by Flippy Hair Guy.

I'm so tired I go to bed before 10:30. I had agreed to take the box with Tailia in it to shelter as it would be hard to explain if she got arrested. I put her on the foot of my bed as I really only take up the top half. Even though I wasn't really touching her my stomach turned whenever my foot brushed the box. The thought that her corpse was on my bed was disturbing.

I didn't sleep at all the whole night. I tossed and turned and woke up every five minutes;. I constantly looked over at the empty bunk across from me and worried about KL and if she got to the bridge okay. I wondered if she was using but of course the answer was most likely yes and I couldn't blame her with the circumstances.

I woke up with no rest, completely miserable, with a dead cat.

--mm