Day Fifty-Seven

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

I find KL in the food courts. She looks like shit. She slept on a box with only one small blanket for warmth. It was a cold night. She had gone into the McDonald's bathroom to do her rinse at 6pm. The next thing she knew it was 9:30pm and the needle was still in her arm. It was the cat that woke her up; she had been playing with the needle. If I had been more observant I would have found her; I had called her name in the bathroom but left when there was no answer. 

I don't know how to tell her Houdini is in jail. I just tell her with no warning, no preface just, "Houdini is in jail." Nothing seems to be going well for her lately. Her boyfriend of three years is in jail, her friend is dead, and she almost over dosed. Nothing is going as it should. 

Her foot is hurt and she can't remember why. I tell her we should go to the clinic and have it checked but she'd rather self medicate with dope and I'm too tired to argue. After she gets that done we don't want to do anything else so we go to Hell to watch movies. I put on Mizyaki's "The Cat Returns" and we both curl up on blankets and fall asleep. When we wake up KL can't move her foot and she is crying in pain. I carry her to the stairs and she scoots herself up. We stagger to the elevator so we can get out to call a cab. She calls an organization she used to go to and they get us a cab to go to the clinic. 

We get there as they are closing up. The clinic refuses to see her even when I throw a fit so I run upstairs to grab Bernard, the guy who took us shopping. Bernard helps me carry her outside then grab good and beverages. He calls us a cab to take us to the OHSU hospital.

KL currently has a warrant so she can't go in her own name. One of the girls gives us permission to use her name and social security number. It's identity "borrowing" but the law would still see it as identity theft which is a class A felony. What else can we do without KL going to jail though? She needs an xray which the clinic doesn't have. OHSU is overflowing. They put us in the pediatrics waiting room where I have a blast playing video games while KL moans in pain in the background.

When they call us back to the hospital room we make ourselves at home. I put on "Rent" on my laptop to distract KL from the pain. Many of our nurses sing along to it. They bring us all the warm blankets we want and anything else we ask for. They offer us food but we have tons of snacks left from movie time earlier so we decline. I hide Tweak in my lap under the blankets. We turn the room into our own as we try to tune out the sounds of screaming children in the rooms behind us. 

She gets an Xray that determines she has a very small chip in one of the tiny bones on the top of her foot. They need to splint it. The doctors wheel in a cart with buckets of plaster. They hold KL's foot at a 90 degree angle as they splint it. This is excruciatingly painful so she screams and squeezes my hand so hard my ring digs into my knuckles and I'm screaming.  Meanwhile I type one handed as I chat on Facebook with my friend Sleepy. 

When they're done we ask if we can stay the night. They send a social worker in to talk to us as they say they can't give us a room for the night. The social worker says it's impossible to get us a hotel room which I think is bullshit. She decides to call shelter instead which I think is a swell idea until KL points out we're using someone else's name. We highly doubt the social worker will get through though so I'm not worried. Needless to say we are shocked when not only does she get through but no one rats us out for the fake name. The social worker gets us a cab to take us "home". 

Before we leave the room I steal us six hospital blankets for future outside excursions. Tweak sits openly on the bed chasing her tail. The nurses, instead of scolding us are impressed at our abilities to sneak her in and hide her for three hours. The nurses squeal saying she is so cute and take videos of her chasing her tail. We wait outside for the taxi where Tweak chases her reflection in the window. By the time we arrive at shelter it is almost midnight. We left for the hospital at 6pm. 

I walk KL up the stairs, make her bed and prop her foot on a stack of sheets. I slip her crutches under her bed. Once she and Tweak are settled I go upstairs to put myself to bed. I'm exhausted. It is so tiring to have friends with broken feet. 

--mm