A Vagrant Story (32 page)

Maria smiled across the table. Sierra smiled back. In an instant they both sat at full composure and finished their meals.

“I miss him so much,” Sierra said. “I wish I could go back and be nicer to him.”

“It wouldn’t be real. We already lived our lives together, don’t get lost in wishful thinking or it’ll pull you down too.”

“Can’t see much lower than this. I was always afraid of living … I guess now I’m living dead.”

“Sierra?”

“I was too afraid … that’s why I ran away. John never made any threat to give me back to the agency. He treated me like a human. I felt safe knowing I would never go back to that place. At that age I didn’t understand a lot of the things going on around me, but I did know that with John gone they would take me back to the orphanage. That was the one feeling I recognised at that time. It was the only thing I could relate to. So I ran away rather than go back there. I was afraid … of a lot of things.”

“I would have let you stay with me.”

“Really?”

“Of course. I mean, we did fight an awful lot but we had some good times. I wouldn’t have let them take you back to any orphanage.”

“You mean that? Thank you.”

“Forget about the past, come stay with me now,” Maria said. “I mean, if you’re in trouble you can come stay with me.”

“Why would there be trouble?”

“Sierra … your clothes.”   

Sierra eyed her own heat insulated wrappings. Style had become something of an unknown to her after all this time. She had come to forget the difference between casual pedestrian attire and the rags she wore day in and out.

“Well … it is pretty cold out.”

“And just how long has it been cold?”   

Sierra shied into herself, peeping quiet as a mute.

“Well … if your apartment is that bad then all the more reason to stay with me.”

Sierra nodded. “Not yet. I have to go back to my friends.”

“You seem quite invested in them. They must be good friends.”

“They are. I came out all this way with them. We’ve been walking for days.”

“You walked out here? Sounds like quiet an adventure.”

“It’s more a string of misadventures. A few days ago we all agreed to do something, now we’re out here and we’re not quitting till it’s done.”

“So I won’t be seeing you again for a while. Well … I have waited ten years just to see you now. This time it won’t be so hard a wait.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll come visit you … once I finish what I came out here to do.”

They parted ways on that note. Maria left Sierra a letter detailing her home number and address, and two more of them for insurance purposes. She actually lived on the other end of the city now. She happened to be passing on her train route when she decided to stop and reminisce.

Sierra took her time returning so as to enjoy the moment that passed. She felt a little lighter, so she moved in a lazy, clumsy manner to indicate such.

She couldn’t help think of that bus journey all those years ago.

She rode it all the way to the end of the line, to the city centre, near Middle Park. It was the first bus journey she’d ever taken on her own. Strange to think it had proved to be the last. Even as she grew older she never really ventured far from Middle Park. It was such an easy place for a tramp to earn a living so she never saw the point in going further. It was the first true journey she’d ever taken, running away from home to escape a suicide. Strange to think another suicide would start her on her second big journey, and finally bring her home.  

Busy wrapped in her own ponderings Sierra found herself back at the bridge before realising. She came across Rum clambering up the ladder back to the sidewalk, followed by Alex then Henry. As if preparing for a marathon the three men began stretching their limbs, grunting for unfamiliar pains in their muscles. Sierra couldn’t help giggle for the sight.

Having heard the titter Rum turned to address Sierra as she approached. He seemed about to ask where she’d been all this time when he noticed something else. “You been crying?”

Sierra made a quick go at wiping her eyes clear even though she’d been doing so since parting with Maria. She’d made every effort to wash away the evidence. It was a wonder how this old man noticed.

“Don’t try hiding it,” Rum said again. “If someone hurt you I’ll bust his face open.”

“Protection when I need it – who’d have thought? Thanks Rum, you’re always around.”

“What’s that? Quit acting weird.”

“Nothing happened. I ran into someone I used to know – that’s all.”

“Who?”

“That’s for me to know.”

“That’s right. Run into one of your old school chums and all of a sudden old Rum ain’t so good for you.”

Sierra laughed openly.

“Yeah, go on laughing. You should know while the three of us been sitting around here freezing our asses waiting for you, we’ve lost two hours on the clock. Now we’re stuck here.”

“You’re right, I’m sorry for making you wait. But we’re not stuck. We’ll just have to make up for lost time.”

“Afraid it’s already too late, Blondie. Looks like God ain’t up for granting easy passage.”

Rum let his finger do the explaining by pointing to the sky. Dark clouds were massing on the area fast, and even as they stood there specks of falling snow reappeared all around them. The storm was coming as quickly as last night’s snowfall ceased. So it seemed they would finally have their blizzard.

“Hiding under a bridge won’t help,” Sierra said. “We better get walking.”

In an effort to stem any protestation, Sierra walked ahead to kick start them into motion. Like ducklings to their mother they followed without thought.

“What d’ya know,” Alex said, “old Len was right after all. Suppose I owe him some credit.”

“No worries,” Rum replied. “The man’s a bullshit artist and he knows it.”

Henry crept up beside Rum and Alex. “S-speaking of which, Rum, we only woke up a few seconds ago.”

“Can it!”

Chapter 24

The weather made a turn for the worst. A wall of white flurry began cascading from the skies, drenching the path in snow a foot thick. At least it might have been the path, they couldn’t see much save vague outlines of buildings and themselves.

Sierra’s forward march lasted only so long. The downpour coming in hard, she found herself pushed to the back of the group. Even Henry moved faster than her, though he did so by walking behind Rum’s relatively larger frame, who unknowingly acted as a shield on Henry’s behalf. Alex, his outline at least, had vanished from sight. They didn’t worry about him. Being the largest of the group he had more advantage against the wind than both Rum and Henry combined.

Rum’s trench coat lacked buttons so he pinned it closed with both hands. He moved little by little with his movements slowed by the downfall and feet plummeting into deep snow.

“Sierra!” he called without answer. “Sierra, you there?”

“What?” Sierra’s muffled voice called back, belted into silence by a roar of wind.

“W-We need shelter!”

“I can’t hear you!”

“I said we need shelter!”

“Rum, I think we need to find shelter! T-this isn’t what I was expecting. T-This reminds me of that hurricane that hit ten years ago.”

Rum looked back to Henry. “What did she say?”

“S-Something about a h-hurricane!” Henry replied.

“What hurricane?” Rum yelled back to Sierra.

“Y-you remember the hurricane ten years ago? It happened before the night we first met. It was the strongest s-storm to hit the city, I remember looking out my bedroom window and seeing cars being pushed down the street. My neighbour even swore he saw a pink car flying through the air! Isn’t that weird?”

“Pink car!?” Rum yelled. “What the hell are you talking about? I can’t hear you.”

“What!?”

“What you say, Sierra?”

“D-did someone say something to me?” Henry yelled.

“Sierra, can you hear me!?”

“No I can’t hear you, Rum.”

“But you heard … Screw it.”

Alex reappeared like a being from another dimension, diving from the thickness of the flurry to stand before them. All this time he had been walking in front of them when they thought he’d fallen behind. At first he couldn’t speak over the gales so he yelled his highest.

“I found shelter! People are starting to take shelter in a shopping mall near here!”

“It’ll do!” Sierra cried.

“How come y’heard him?” Rum added. 

Alex retraced his steps, leading them to the main doors of the mall. Barrelling open the glass double doors he found himself falling into the main hall of the mall. It was a darkly lit hall but brighter than the light outside. He breathed a queasy sigh of relief when the others followed suit shortly after.

The four took a moment’s breather. The three men squeezed the damp from their clothes and unwittingly made puddles all over the tiles. Sierra shook snow off, but at once scolded the others upon noticing the mess they were making.

“What did we do now?” Alex asked.

“Look at yourselves! Don’t draw attention or they’ll throw us out.”

“I don’t think that’s going to be a problem.”

Sierra followed his gaze toward the crowd of people gathered throughout both floors of the mall. Her fears of being singled out ceased when she realised all these people were just like them. They weren’t homeless. They’d merely been beaten down so bad as to pick up a few similar traits.

These people stood around sniffing enflamed noses, warming hands over what heat they could find, and no longer caring for filthy drenched clothing. And they all wore big thick coats, extra layered for added warmth. It could have been a charity lunch set up like those in Middle Park for all appearances. How the owner of this place must have felt to wake up with a shopping centre, and go to bed with a refugee camp. Time makes fools of everyone like that.

Sierra relaxed with this atmosphere. She liked feeling big among bigger people. Most of all she liked how nobody stared at them. When they entered the shop they could have been greeted courteously by a door greeter, had he not skipped off work to avoid this rabble.

Sierra sighed. “Alright … looks like we’re in the clear. But remember, Rum, just because they look like bums, doesn’t mean they want to fight you. They’re normal people and don’t work on the same ranking system as you.”

“Right - they got their own one,” Rum said. “But it ain’t my problem if they got the problem. They start – I finish.”

“Don’t worry Rum,” Alex said. “It’s so dark in here they won’t be so inclined to wanna punch your ugly face.”

“The hell that supposed to mean?”

“Just saying it’s dark in here, the power must be out. No wonder, half this city’s power is built on outdated junk. All it takes is a strong gale and the whole grid goes flat.”

“That all you’re saying? Well the lights are on up there,” Rum said in reference to dim lighting on the second floor which hardly reached their location.

“They must be running the backup generator. See how dim they are? The battery must be getting low. But they’re lucky it works, I suppose. Remember that hospital me and Henry went to? I once heard that their backup generator conks out every time it’s activated. They can’t even afford a decent backup generator. I’d hate to think what’s happening there now.”

“From what I gathered through our experience there,” Rum said. “The doctors would probably just lock all the patients in their rooms so they can’t hear anything. Then go off drinking.”

“I’d like to take that as a joke but I had the same thought. It’s pathetic how something nobody really needs, like a shopping centre, can receive a fully functioning backup generator while a hospital gets scrap metal.”

“Ain’t no accident. Thing is, this shopping centre is privately owned and the hospital ain’t.”

“So the shopping mall receives more funding than the hospital?” 

“That ain’t even the thick of it. The thing is – see - in reality this city has two competing industries, only two. One is a multi-market corporation spanning its influence over everything it needs to survive. It wants to grow bigger, it wants more money, and to do that it needs to remove all competition. It began small-time here in this city and since grew to encompass over half the city’s industries. They own the trains we used to get here, electrical companies, shopping malls like this, you name it. But it wasn’t always like that.”