****NAMES CHANGED TO PROTECT PORTLAND'S STREET KIDS*****
It's
Sunday so the only services open is Day Program #1 which opens in the afternoon. To make matters
worse I have to check in with Beard Man or Mother Goose today or I'll
lose my bed. I'd rather eat my big toe than talk to those idiots but
Kitten Lady keeps telling me I need to suck up my pride. I agree to
talk to them but make no promises to be nice. "It's going to be
a dramatic day," I warn her.
We go
to Powell's where I sell the Tarot deck we stole for $4. Dream big!
As for the rest of our adventures in Powell's I'll just say we were
naughty. That wheel chair is a boosting machine. We both hate it
though. It's a million pounds and I can barely push us up the hills
that are Portland. "I think I know why they didn't put metal
bars on this wheel chair," KL observes, "They didn't think
anyone would be stupid enough to steal it."
I
guess OHSU didn't prepare themselves for us.
Once
it is time to go to the day program we prepare ourselves for a giant
blow out. With us being interrupted with my having to pee every ten seconds we don't really have a whole lot of time to come up with a plan. I'm okay with getting kicked out but only minor-ly kicked out as I
need to see the doctor in the youth clinic for my kidney.
When
we get there I have to pee right that second. When you have a kidney
infection you have to pee all the time and at a moment's notice. It's
painful, like pissing glass. All the bathrooms are of course full and I freak out, groaning in pain. Mother Goose asks what's going on and I scream I need a bathroom. While I'm
screaming that I need a bathroom I start yelling about this whole
needing to check in thing, "I need a bathroom right now and I'd
also like an explanation as to how you guys don't have the time of
day to ask me how I'm doing or even say hello but you can go out of
your way to send emails saying you want me kicked out of my res."
"Why
don't we get you to a bathroom?"
"Fuck
yes I need a bathroom but I need an explanation for this bullshit
too."
Only
me. Even I'll admit I can be one crazy bitch, fighting over a bed
reservation while screaming that I need a bathroom. She opens the
downstairs bathroom for me and I run to the toilet where I...well I
don't think you want the details. When I come out she asks if it
hurts. Obviously, it hurts like shit.
We
end up talking in the lobby of the medical clinic which is fine. It's
preferable to her office which is usually crowded with hygiene
products and other supplies for homeless fucks like us. I tell her I
think they're all assholes, denying us things we
need just because we might "sell" them because KL and
Houdini are addict. I rant for quite awhile, by the end
of it I'm sick of hearing myself.
Mother
Goose goes into complete ass kissing mode. I'm surprised when she
gives us the movie tickets we have been asking for for months. She
says she'll keep my reservation for shelter and by the end of the
night I'm satisfied enough to keep putting up with the bullshit
another day.
We go
to the medical clinic where our lazy eye doctor is working. I go into
my story telling mode and complain about the pokey sticks and water
torture and all the other horrible things that happened to me. She
agrees with me when I tell her everything that is happening to make
me think I have a kidney infection. She prescribes me another set of
antibiotics and says I need to take both.
She
gets KL a new wheel chair, one she can wheel herself, that's ten
thousand pounds lighter so I can push it without dying. One of the other kids with a broken foot is getting a wheel chair too so I joke we should race. The doctor is thrilled with this. We take
ourselves and our new wheel chair up to the benches by shelter where
we smoke weed with a stolen pipe until it's time to go inside and go
to bed.
--mm
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