How I Lost My Cell Phone to a Homeless

You know, there are good people and bad people. Meaning, some people you can look to see the best in them...and less as much, some people you can find the worst in them! Then, there are the people in between. Some of you may have watched the Superman series, Smallville, where Clark Kent's step father said he prefer to see the best in people.

Of course, most people have examples and know people where you can see the best in people. Since I am writing a story about 1, I of course write 1 a scenario where there are some people you can absolutely look for the worst in them. Apparently, those are more interesting, so I most likely won't write a story of good people.

By default, I'm usually neutral to new people, but as conversations start talking between us, I usually try to find the better in people, until they prove me wrong. Meaning, I don't try to find the bad in meeting new people, because I give them the benefit of the doubt. Therefore, 1 has to prove to me he or she can't be trusted or isn't a good person.

Hi.

I got a ticket to attend a free dinner for an Internet marketing conference in a dowtown hotel building (Chicago). It was Friday, November 17, 2006. Because it said free food, I of course wanted to go. I wore a suit.. Attended at 6 o' clock at night. I sat for an hour and a half before they served the food. It was about how to make money on the Internet by making a website. No thanks.. Then I left around 8 to the trains (Red Line). The subways were closed, for renovation, so I had to walk a couple blocks to different trains (Brown Line). The Brown Line trains were elevated tracks.

I was on 800 North in downtown, walking west to the trains. As I walked some black homeless guy hollered at me. I stopped and looked at him. He looked at me back. He then told me to not be afraid and on come over. I went over. He said he wanted to use the phone, and to use it to dial some number. I got it out and dialed as he said then gave the phone to him. No answer. So I let him dial the 2nd time. He wanted to call his mom, but no 1 answered. He gave me the phone back. So he said I could hang out for a minute. So we sat together on a concrete window sill. I asked him, "You live around here" Well, he didn't quite want to tell me right away that he was a homeless. He then asked for some money, so I gave him 4 bucks. Sadly, he wanted to use it on weed. :( He then talked about wanting some place warm to sleep, like at a hotel or something, and that he hasn't showered in 3 days, so I told him he could sleep at my place. I told him he could sleep at my living room. At first, he didn't want to do it, because he'd rather have me pay him $200 for rent somewhere. He ended up changing his mind. He had a 1-Day bus pass which will start once it's triggered. It then will expire in 12 hours. So we went to my apartment. I wanted to walk to the trains, but because of his brace on his leg, he lied and said the train station was far so we ended up waiting a long time for the bus.

On the bus, we sat next to each other of course, me by the window. I asked him how old he was. He paused and said, 30. Because of how delayed he was, we didn't get off at the stop we should have so he was angry and we pulled the string and got off the next stop 2 blocks away. He was pissed of course. As we walked to the trains, we ignored red lights and walked right through traffic and cars. I asked him what happened to his leg in the middle of the street and he said he was hit by a car, and got the brace at a hospital. He was slow or took his time to go up the stairs to the train station. Going up the stairs, we stopped and let the people behind us pass us as we were so slow. At the deck, we were at the very front end, and I thought we should walk more to the middle. At night time, the trains have less cars, so the train came and because it was shorter, the front car didn't come to us, so the homeless again was pissed as he had to walk some 30 feet to the first car. We took the Brown Line train to get out of downtown, and we got off on a station outside of downtown to transfer to the Red Lines. At the station he went off to go pee somewhere. We went on the Red Line train and it was super crowded. Later he announced for the people to give us room so they backed off and we got space. As the train got less and less crowded, we sat together of course.

On the trains he says he wants to sleep on the floor in my room and I said what for... He said cuz I said so. I told him my room didn't have a heater. He said he wanted to sleep in my room. Anyways, he wanted to call his mom again, so I handed him my cell and he dials, still no answer. This time, though, he didn't give me back my phone. His breath smelled of strong alcohol. Maybe half an hour later we got off and went down the stairs and walked out of the station, where our next bus was. We were by a McDonalds. The homeless complained it was too cold so he went in the McDonalds and I waited outside. He later told me to come in and we waited inside. When he saw me to stop and look at a trash can, he said what's the matter with me, looking for garbage. Of course, I said I was looking for food and it wasn't any of his concerns, and he was angry and said I was messed up. The bus came and we left. We sat together of course. As we got out, we walked down the residential street and made an immediate left turn to an alley. He kept asking me how far it was, and are we there yet? We made an immediate right and I said my house was down this alley. As we approached the end, he kept asking me how far it was and I pointed the 3-flat red-colored building. As we walk along the house he said get out your keys so you don't have to look for them as we got in. We got in the main small lobby and I unlocked the door and we walked up stairs to the 3rd floor. He was very slow going up of course. He stays over at my place, I show him my room. He walked in and said yea it's colder in here, and lighted a cigarette in my room. Then we went to the living room and he said he wanted something to sleep on so I went to my room and got some sheets and a pillow for myself. He didn't want me to sleep in my room so I ended up sleeping in the living room floor with him.

Apparently, an Indian woman was also renting a different room on the 3rd floor. Well I had the guy sleep at the corner so he couldn't be seen. We talked out what time we had to get up before his pass expired for the bus and trains. He told me I was to give him money for tomorrow morning. The Indian woman later saw me in the living room and I told her it's warmer in here than it was in my room. I don't think she saw the homeless guy because he was in the front corner, but she may have seen his shoes. It looks like this:

|     |_____
|        =[]o|
|              |
|      Me    |
|              |   w = window.
w            w
|__www__|

I ended up meeting him again, 9 months later, and I had it on this page, but the site got deleted and I did not have this story saved...