Malheur à celui qui n'a pas mendié! Il n'y a rien de plus grand que de mendier. Dieu mendie. Les anges mendient. Les rois, les prophètes et les Saints mendient.
Léon BLOY

Day 64

am (HOT)

pm (HOT)

Rides = nil
Arrival = Jacksonville
KM travelled = nil
$ spent = $0.00
Time passed on the road = nil
km walked = 5

The early bird catches the worm is how the saying goes. So in order to have a worm to call my own, I woke up at 5 am and went directly to the Tempo Talent Agency, the best labour pool in the city. I was the first there when they opened the door, eager to work all day, avid to make a little money. I spent the morning seated in the waiting room which became a kind of musical chair game. The room was small and smoky and the very serious looking contractors would come in with their human shopping list and pick their men. "You, over there," the big man would say, "can you lift heavy loads?" or "Can you work non-stop for 12 hours under the duress of the hot sun without drinking any water," or "Are you able to hold your breath for 15 minutes at the time and scrub dirt from underneath the ground." Okay, I am exaggerating, it was not that crazy. But when a contractor would find a suitable candidate they would go out the door leaving one chair available for the next labourer to arrive. I saw the room empty and refill, one person at the time, a few times. For some reason I was not picked and it was not because of my lack of desire to work. Maybe it was my hair, I don't know.

At noon when the flow of contractors had trickled down significantly, Tim, one of the 'labourers in waiting' who had not been picked either, invited me to join him in a financial enterprise. He was skinny, his hair was greasy and he was sporting huge dark sunglasses. He said that begging could be very profitable. I told him that I had never begged before. He assured me that it was easy. "Come, look at me and learn," he said while taking position on the sidewalk. He took his baseball hat off and started to asked for change. He was convincing and aggressive, thanking the Good Samaritans and following those who dared not to give. He collected 2 dollars in two minutes. He came running from his spot to my position of observation and dragged me onto his side. "Take your hat off and do like me." A woman was coming towards us. "Please Ma'am can you spare a quarter, we're starving." She gave 50 cents. "Now it's your turn." A man was approaching. "Hello, uh, do you have any money, we're really hungry," I was almost stuttering. The man put his hand in his pocket and dropped a quarter into my Bavarian hat! I was stunned and delighted. We did our thing for a while and then Tim said: "Let's go over there, I know a guy down there and he's gonna give us some work." He was pointing to a warehouse building that was surrounded by a barbed wire fence. There was also a security booth with a guard at the entrance gate. Tim said that we were better off to jump the fence and run for the main office. "I don't know the guy at the gate. He probably won't let us in anyway." We climbed the fence and jumped onto the other side. Tim had just started to sprint when two dogs came running toward him and me. I climbed back up the fence really fast and Tim just made it by the skin of his teeth. We walked away with the dogs barking behind us. Tim was crushed. I told him that I was going to earn money on my own, by playing music on the street. Tim responded, "Whatever," and disappeared without sharing the money we had collected on our begging stint.



I found a good place to play, between a shoe store and an art gallery. In the window of the gallery there was a stainless steel bird for sale at $600.00 US. Anyway I played some blues and I made $7.25. I was pretty happy. One thing that I enjoyed was the contact with people. I liked to talk to them and to listen to their stories. Today I met Mister Neutron. He said that he was the brain behind the whole computer technology revolution and that 6 months ago a neutron bomb exploded beside him. The explosion boosted his blood cells but made his back peel. He lifted his shirt to show me the ravage of the bomb on his skin. His back was actually peeling but it looked more like the effects of a bad sunburn that had not been taken care of.

Me: This looks pretty bad. Why are you not in the hospital?

Mister Neutron: I can't be there. It's part of the job to be outside. I must work on the neutrons while my blood levels are high.

He paused and turned his head slightly on its side, his eyes were intense black dots.

Mister Neutron: You're one of them, aren't you?

Me: One of who?

Mister Neutron: One of those Street Doctors. You're scanning my insides are you not? Go ahead scan as much as you want, you wont find anything anyway.

Mister Neutron started to laugh hysterically for a good minute. He continued saying, "You're a spy but spies can't find anything, they would never find a thing on me. SHUT UP!" he yelled.

As Mister Neutron was getting mad I asked him a question about his status.

Me: As head of the computers you must make a lot of money.

Mister Neutron: 6 million dollars Kid that's my salary, 6 million dollars. Do you want one, I'll give you one.

Me: If I want what?

Mister Neutron: A computer. What kind do you want? Do you want a H2x=0 blue female? I'll bring it here tomorrow, are you gonna be here? Everything is written in the sky but we must wait for the darkness to read the messages. All of the other computers can only function during daylight ...

While Mister Neutron continued to talk, I walked away.

- Daniel


mister
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