familiar paths

Woke up to grey, mottled skies, grabbed my gear, hailed a taxi and placed my personals into a rented self-storage unit. With only a back pack stuffed with essentials (toiletries, socks, and boxers), I made my way to the Sunshine Rescue Mission located over on Benton. Until further notice, I am homeless. Again.

Nestled in panoramic mountains swathed in pine trees, the town of Flagstaff seems extraordinarily laid back. It is a pleasant departure from the demented and anger saturated locals of a metropolis or the drug/incarcerated addicted mindset of Yuma and Tucson. Definitely a slower paced environment.

I found the mission. A rust colored brick building in a residential neighborhood. Quiet, clean, much in a way from previous places. In the open patio, sprawled on a metal bench, ran into my first wing nut. An early twenty-something Native American zonked out on dope. Because of the long walk, I was thirsty, so when I asked the location of a nearby convenient store to purchase a bottle of water, all I received was a mumbled incoherent reply. However, as I was walking off property to search for a shop to buy said water and I lit up a cigarette, all of a sudden the demented fucker became as literate as William Shakespeare. Told him to fuck off when he asked for a smoke.

Had some time on my hands, as hobos often do, and found the local library to sit and wait check in for a bunk for newbies, that being at 4pm.

Was eventually processed. Most of the local homeless are Native American – raggedly somber men squatting, blinking in the late afternoon sun. After dinner (some kind of pasta with diced potatoes and a salad), I wearily lay at my bunk, but endured an incident concerning the immediate neighbors. A comical fist fight broke out between this large Native American and his black bunky regarding body odors. How mundane.

After that monkey business (Native American won), they switched off the lights at 9 yet endured little in way of sleep in lieu of the raggedy ass metal bunks and the guy in the bunk above tossed and turned shaking the bunk constantly.
A ver…