I\u2019ve written before about my homeless friends M and C, How they got themselves into a house and how then they broke up and C went off somewhere. I saw M a lot going past in the train after that and then for a while I didn\u2019t.
\nSuddenly he started getting on at my station. He told me he\u2019d found C – she was at her mother’s in the country – but that he\u2019d lost the house. He told me he\u2019d been in jail for a few months. \u201cI punched a guy who was fiddling with little kids,\u201d he told me. “But I was good in jail and worked on a trade certificate. I\u2019m a qualified plasterer.\u201d
\nHe\u2019s quite a nice person -he always helps tourists with the ticket machines and timetables very kindly \u2013 but it\u2019s also clear he\u2019s got a short fuse and he does love his Wild Turkey and coke. He has a big scar across his head which implies maybe Acquired Brain Injury or is simply due to his epilepsy. For a couple of days he had work on a building site. Then he was back to begging. So one step forward two back.
\nThen a few days later I saw a familiar figure on the opposite platform. It was C. She waved at me. She looked good.
\nThe next day M waved at me out of the train. “Great news. She\u2019s back,” he shouted.
\nThey stopped by the station a couple of days later. They seemed pretty happy. Though C seems a bit reserved. They had a wizened little old man in tow. C introduced him as her father. “He\u2019s staying with us for a bit,” she said. Staying was a strange word to use. They were all off into the city to do some begging. If they didn\u2019t make enough money for a room, well they had sleeping bags.
\nM and C make me aware of my own middle-classness \u2013 my assumptions about work, houses and stability. You can\u2019t have a relative to stay with you unless you at least have a floor for them to sleep on, can you? They also make me realize you don\u2019t have to travel to experience other ways of life. They are here in Melbourne, right under your nose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019ve written before about my homeless friends M and C, How they got themselves into a house and how then they broke up and C went off somewhere. I saw M a lot going past in the train after that and then for a while I didn\u2019t. Suddenly he started getting on at my station. …<\/p>\n