Broken Song (2 page)

Half of the man's teeth were missing, I suppressed a shudder then he spoke with an incredibly deep hardened tone, “'Sup, Dandelion?”

She produced a ten dollar bill from her purse and held it up.  The man didn't even look but grabbed it.  Sandra didn't release it and said, “Info first.  What's the word?  She around?”

He nodded then turned to her with a mostly toothless grin.  “Yup.  She's down the block.  Tried to get her to the Anchorage Avenue shelter but she won't accept help, she's hardened, a lifer.  Got her name... Alice.  But I did get that one freshie you talked about to the shelter tonight though.”

He tugged on the bill and she still held tight and turned to lock eyes with this man.  What the hell was going on?  She tilted her head and widened her eyes a bit like she was prompting him.  The man shook his head.  “His name is Gerald Brown.  He's retired military but used to be a carpenter and is a good outdoors man.  No family that he will talk about.  His birthday is December third.”

Then just like that, she released the bill which he promptly pocketed.  The dogs were licking his hands like crazy and trying to climb up on top of him as he absently petted them.

She grinned at me then said, “Leo, this is my new friend, Penny.  Penny, this is my man on the street, Leo.  He has the pulse of the homeless community and is one of my best friends.”

I nodded slowly and spoke carefully as I offered my hand down to where he sat, “It's nice to meet you, Leo.”

He held his hands up in a surrender gesture.  “A lady like you don't want to be shaking my hand, Penny.  I'm a little dirty, I'll get a shower on my next shelter visit.”  Then he paused and narrowed his eyes.  “You aren't one of those to take advantage of our Dandelion, are you?  I got my eye on you.”  He pointed two fingers at his eyes and flung them toward me.

Then Sandra cleared her throat.  Was she blushing?  Then she pulled out a five and held it up and spoke, “Leo, be nice.  Can you get to the Second Street Shelter tonight and let Ralph know I found someone who could use Billy's business accounting skills for a month or two?  It could turn into a full time gig and get him off the streets for good.  Just have him drop me a line, the pay is good and they are expecting him...  includes room and board.  And Ralph has a cot at the shelter for you tonight, I made sure he knew you were on an errand for me so they saved it.”

He took the five and nodded as he stood.  She stood too as he picked up his cardboard and blanket and started walking off.  “Solid, Dandelion.”

Sandra just nodded. “Solid.”  I just stared at her for a moment.  Did I understand what was happening here correctly?  It seemed like Leo was like her informant and she was helping out some homeless people at the shelters and getting them jobs?  I shook my head and I looked over in the direction Leo went but the street was empty.

She grinned at me and took a twenty out of her purse and stuck it in her coat pocket and pulled her light gloves off and stuffed them in the opposite coat pocket, then took the leashes back from me.  “Leo used to be a police detective until he quit seven years ago after he shot a robbery suspect he was chasing that he thought was pulling a gun on him.  It wound up the man was reaching for his cell phone.  The department cleared him since the man said he had a gun when he robbed the place and he was acting combative and evading arrest.  But Leo can't get over the fact that he killed an unarmed man and has nightmares all the time.  His wife divorced him when he became erratic and he wound up on the streets.  He is a wonderful resource for locating new homeless people, 'freshies', for me to help.  The man has a heart of gold, though he tries to act all tough and junk.”

She had a look on her face as though she admired and was proud of the man.

Then I tilted my head as I looked at her.  She helps out homeless people?  I caught myself looking at her and Leo in a different light now.  She continued speaking, “A new lady showed up a few days ago, Alice, sounds like a lifer.  That's someone that has been on the street for years and won't accept anyone's help and prefers to live on the street.  From what I have been able to piece together from the word on the street, it sounds like she was rolled in Tacoma and her good stuff, like her coat and gloves, were taken.  This mid November weather is turning bitter cold and I'm scared her dumpster diving won't turn up the clothing she needs soon enough.”

I was looking at her.  Trying to figure her out.  She grinned again and her voice sounded like a bird chirp when she said,  “She's been elusive so I tasked Leo to locate her for me.  He tracked her down to this street yesterday.”

We passed an alley then she stopped and backed up and just pushed the leashes toward me.  As I took them, she started looking at a beat up shopping cart filled with junk and odds and ends covered with some dilapidated clear plastic held down with bungee cords and twine.  There was a pile of cardboard beside the cart.

Sandra walked up to the cart and I could see her looking at it intently, taking it all in.  She squinted an eye then nodded to herself then looked up and called out, “Knock, knock.”

Shit!
  I almost jumped out of my skin when the pile of cardboard shifted and a woman with ratty grey hair and a dirty flannel shirt a couple sizes too big sat up from under it.  “Get away from my stuff!  It's mine!” she hissed out as she stood and lunged between Sandra and the cart, her face was weathered and leathery like Leo's but she looked severely malnourished compared to him.

Sandra didn't even flinch, instead she made eye contact with the woman with a smile.  She chirped again in her overly cheerful voice.  “Hi Alice.  I'm Sandra, they call me Dandelion around here and that there is Penny.  I'm not gonna take your stuff, though I am here for a trade, I heard you had a red blouse in your cart.”  I glanced over and saw some red fabric on the back side.  That's what she was doing when she examined the cart, taking inventory?

The shivering woman's eyes went to her cart then back to the blonde.  “What of it?  It's mine I found it.  It ain't stolen!”

Sandra simply grinned and replied, “Red just happens to be my favorite color.  I'd love to make a trade for it if you don't mind.”

The woman shook her head. “You ain't got nuttin I need.”

Sandra looked to be in deep thought then she brightened suddenly like she had just come up with a good idea. “How about my coat for the blouse.  It's a really pretty blouse and I just have to have it.”

This seemed to pique the woman's interest and she was now eyeballing Sandra's coat then looking back at her cart.  Then without a word she held out her hand.  Sandra just quickly shrugged out of her coat.  She was wearing a light jacket under it.  Did she know she was going to be doing this before she went on her walk?

The woman snatched the coat and quickly put it on and then looked back at the cart, stepped to it and retrieved the red blouse.  She started to hand it to Sandra but then pulled back slightly.  But I could see in her face that she made a mental decision then handed it over.

Sandra held it out and looked at it front and back.  Then excitedly said, “Sweet!  This is perfect Alice, I feel like I got the better end of the deal.”  Then she cocked her head. “You gonna hang around this area or are you looking for another location?  I'd love to do trades from time to time and I know others that like to trade as well.”

Alice just nodded the affirmative, then said, “This is my alley.  Now go find your own.”

Sandra put a hand on the older woman's arm.  “OK, thanks again Alice.  And if you find any good pieces of clothing like this for trade, you can send Leo, the man you met today, and I'll come with trading stock.”

The woman just nodded then Sandra turned from her and grabbed three of the leashes from me and we started down the street again.  We turned the corner at the end of the block then she looked at me with a grin. “Brrr... let's get home.”

I can't figure this woman out.  She was off on twenty different topics but oddly I found it amusing and engaging.  There was just something, I don't know, innocent?  Untainted?  Naive, about her.

Then we turned onto another street and we passed the Second Street Shelter.  Without even breaking stride as we walked past, she deftly pushed the red blouse into a freestanding metal box marked for clothing donations to the homeless shelter.

There were men and women sitting outside of the shelter on mismatched lawn chairs or on cardboard on the ground.  All of them were calling out, “Hey Dandelion,” or “Have a good night lil Dandelion,” and similar greetings.

She was grinning and meeting each one of their eyes as we made our way along, saying, “G'night Kathy.  Sup, Brent.  Hey, Brian.  Lookin' good, Tina,”  and so on as we walked past.  She seemed to know each and every one of them.

Three blocks later we turned onto another street and she started up the steps of a dilapidated, crumbling brick building.  She unlocked the front doors and released the leashes and the dogs ran through the lobby and up the rickety looking stairs.

We walked to the second floor and she opened an unlocked door and we stepped into a little apartment with the puppies on our heels.  This was her home?  This did not match her attire nor her bearing.  I know I couldn't have been this far off on her social standing.  But the apartment, unlike the rest of the building, was quite clean and charming.  There were rabbits in cages on a long table along one wall.

She grinned at the consternation on my face and spoke like she knew what I was thinking as she took the leashes off the dogs, “I like it here, it keeps me close to my people on the street.  It is easier to help them from here than some apartment in the core.”

I looked at her, trying to understand her.  “This is what you do?  Help out homeless people?  Are you like a councilor or something?”

She giggled.  “No, I'm not smart enough for that.  I just help out my friends on the street and the kids in the hospital.  What I 'do' is sell tickets to the duck boats downtown or help out at Silent Bob's.  Well it's Valentine's now that Bobbie married Blake.”

I tilted my head then asked what I had been pondering since we met Leo and Alice,  “You knew you would be trading your coat tonight to that woman didn't you.  It was all your plan?”

She nodded with an adorable look of pure mischief on her face. “Yup.  Some people are too proud to accept my help.  So I give it in ways that benefit everyone.  Tonight was a triple whammy and I feel like doing one of those touchdown dances for making a home run or whatever the sports-y thing is.  Now she has a coat and gloves and I won't worry so much about her exposure to the cold tonight.  Though she's smart, a veteran, she had her cardboard until she can scavenge something better.  And now she has cash so she'll eat well at least tomorrow.  Then the trifecta, I had a piece of clothing at the end to donate to the shelter.  This helped Alice save face and it didn't hurt her pride.  She took no charity.”

She was grinning like an idiot now.  I was smiling too despite myself.  “How will she eat...”  Then I suddenly remembered and said, “That's why you stuffed the twenty in your coat pocket.”

She was almost vibrating in excitement and nodding in mischief.

Then I shook my head. “And that's why you were wearing the jacket under the coat.”

She giggled and nodded again. “Duh.  It's cold out there, I didn't want to walk home shivering.”

I tilted my head. “But in the end you are out twenty damn dollars and your damn coat.”

She shot me a reproving look, I was immediately sorry for cussing again.  Then she shrugged. “It's only money.  And that wasn't really my coat.  I bought it today for when I located Alice.”  I swear to God she looked as pleased as a chipmunk who just found a cache of a thousand acorns.

I snorted.  But my mind went over everything that she had set up perfectly from Leo to Alice, the coat, the money, the trade.  It was like a well choreographed dance that was executed to perfection.

Then I looked at her as I wondered about something I observed and something she said,  “What's with the cardboard?  Leo was on some, Alice covered herself with some and I saw some people outside the shelter sitting on pieces of it.”

She shrugged with a look on her face that told me it should be obvious. “You ever sit down on cold concrete?  That cold soaks right into you, right into your bones.  Corrugated cardboard is a good insulator and you can find it anywhere.  It provides a barrier between the cold ground and you.  It also holds heat well so any homeless person worth their salt has a piece to sleep on if they can't get one of the limited number of cots in the shelters each night.  Alice built a little cocoon of it around her to hold in the heat until a dumpster dive can come up with a discarded blanket or tarp.”

Then she motioned toward the couch as she went toward the kitchen.  “Coffee?  Tea?  Beer? Juice?”

I just shook my head at this intriguing woman.  I couldn't for the life of me determine if she was simple minded or a calculating mastermind.  I shrugged. “Coffee would be fine.”

And as she started a pot she offhandedly said,  “Oh, and before it is too late, happy birthday Penny.” I looked at the clock on her entertainment center, two minutes after eleven, then couldn't help but look at this frustratingly random, pretty woman.  A part of me smiled in recognition that she somehow knew my birthday.

She came to the couch with a tray that had a cupcake with a lit candle on it and two cups of hot coffee, the grin on her face was priceless as she had me blow out the candle.