The Lost

They sit by the river waiting for something, anything to come their way. The river
Is flooded this time of year, it’s the summer and it’s extremely hot. There are old pieces of junky furniture that are arranged around a fire pit. There a few make shift tents and cluttered little shacks. Occasionally the police come and tear down their only shelter but they come back. Besides where are they to go... this is their home.
Tears stain an old man’s face which is wrinkled and worn like leather on an old shoe. A girl with long dingy blonde hair nurses a crying baby. A tall thin woman shakes her head at the swollen river. A young boyish girl with short hair comes over and takes the tall women’s hand. “It will be ok.’ But the tall woman looks at her like she doesn’t believe her. A boy comes out of a small tent made out of old blankets. “Momma” he cries but momma doesn’t come so he goes inside. Suddenly there is a crack of thunder. The residents of the small river town look nervously to the sky.
The drops come fast and hard as the wind picks up they scurry inside their tents and small shelters. Once inside they still can not breath easy they know the river is at its banks. The old man speaks to the tall women, “Helen we need to move to higher ground!”
Helen, the tall women nods. “But to where?”
He points in the direction of a hill, “that hill in the corner that way it will provide us with some protection from the lightening”
They quickly scurry about picking up as much as they can. They trod up the hill knowing once they are up that hill they will be safe from the water. “Anne” Helen says looking around for her. Anne looks over at Helen holding her baby tightly.
“What?” Anne sighs wearily.
“Are you ok?”
Anne nods with that they climb up to the top. “Grandpa Moses... take my hand.” The boyish women reaches for the elderly mans brown wrinkled hand. Grandpa Moses grasps on to her hand.
“Thank you Jamie.” He says still struggling to walk. “bobby.” He calls to the young boy.
Bobby just cries. “Momma” is all he can say.
Grandpa Moses shakes his head “I am sorry son your momma is not here. We are your family now.”
Bobby tries to smile but he is only 5 and doesn’t understand fully.
They reach the top of the hill quickly setting up their shelter. Overhead thunder rumbles, lightening crackles and drops fall from the sky. “This never happened when I had my house.” Helen mumbles.
Jamie comes over to Helen. “I know, you will have a house again even if I have to build it myself.” She kisses the taller women. Helen smiles her face although a little worn is beautiful, dark olive colored skin, big brown eyes and long curly black hair. She looks almost exotic but her dinginess keeps her from looking like an Indian princess. At 35 she still looks 30 but feels 50. Jamie was a sharp contrast to her with her short blonde hair, blue eyes and light skin. She was short and stockier than the older women and at 23 she looked 30. They were an odd pair.
Anne looked at the couple smiling. She wished she had someone but her boyfriend abandoned her by the highway one day. He told her to get out and then he drove off. Anne sighed. Anne was only 21 too young too be desperate and desolate. Anne with long stringy blonde hair looked like a hippy and had a certain beauty among her plainness. Her freckled burnt face was small and thin. She was average height 5 ft5 but only 100 lbs. Her baby, was only a month old she had yet to name her. She just could not think of the perfect name for her. To Anne names were very important they defined you for the rest of you life. She wasn’t sure about her future or her baby’s so she waited.
Grandpa Moses laid upon a dingy brown blanket sleeping as usual. He was 70 and worn out. He looked about 90 and had arthritis. The once tall strong man was frail weak and bent over. He had the blackest skin you would ever see and his eyes looked black. He had never been good looking but he once had lots of women who wanted him but now his time had past. Beside him Bobby laid curled up.
Bobby was adorable with his blackish brown hair and brown eyes. He was interracial, African American and Caucasian. His mother used to live with them for a few days but one day she went out to find food and never came back. That was a year ago. The poor boy hadn’t seen her since.
None of them were related but they were family they went wherever the others would go. They would work from time to time, the strong ones and they brought home food or clothes. The children and Grandpa Moses would get the things first if there was enough than the others would partake too. They rarely came home unless they had enough for everybody. They also never went alone, they had a buddy system and it worked great. They talked about their futures getting away from their dilapidated river shacks. They planned to get a house together.
The tent started leaking water. Jamie went over and to fix it but even with if fixed it still dripped. Jamie through her hands up in frustration. Helen came up to her.” Don’t worry about it Hun, it’s going to leak no matter what. Maybe we should go to the shelter tonight.”
Jamie shook her head. “ No way, they almost killed Grandpa Moses for his gold watch!”
Grandpa Moses had a gold watch that was his fathers it was the only thing he owned that was all his. It was 24 kits gold and appraised at $1,000. He would never sell it, it was all he left of his old life. His father had been rich and all his life his father had taken care of him. Grandpa Moses had worked for his father’s business, a shoe factory. His father died at 85 the shoe factory was closed and it never reopened. It turned out that his father owed the IRS millions of dollars so the government seized everything except the watch. He had hidden in his coat pocket. He was 65 years old too old to find a decent job and the social security checks were not enough. Now at 70 he was just tired of having nothing.
Helen nodded, “ ok so that is not an option we need better shelter than this.” Helen’s eyes filled with tears. She had a house of her own it was small but it was hers.
Helen had always done things differently than her parents. She did not go to college, she did not marry and she was a lesbian. When she told her parents they had thrown her out so at 16 she was on her own. She went to her grandmother’s and left at 18. She found a job at a factory and worked there 10 years. She made $15/hour which was enough to buy a house. She bought a small 2 bedroom house in a decent part of town. Then suddenly one day the factory shut down and she was out of work. She applied all over the city. The only offer she got was a waitress it didn’t pay the bills so finally she applied at a strip club. They hired her on the spot but when one of the clients tried to rape her after work one day she quit. She went from job to job for 3 years but none of them were enough to pay her bills. She had held 20 jobs in those 3 years and soon was unemployable. She could not get any government assistance so she fell through the cracks. She lost everything in 3 months and that’s when she met Jamie.
Jamie had been a vagabond pretty much all her life. She grew up in foster homes and at 18 was left to fend for herself. Jamie meet an older woman and lived with her for a year. They spilt up and Jamie went from place to place. The day she met Helen was the best day of her life. Helen was by the river thinking about ending her life. Grandpa Moses noticed her first. “Jamie go talk to her.” He said. She went to talk to her and from that day on they were inseparable. That was almost a year a go and she knew that she was in love.
Suddenly the baby cried. “ Anne..” Jamie said looking at the young women, “ are you ever going to name that baby?”
“Why what would it matter?” Anne shrugged pulling the baby close to her to nurse her.
Anne had been pregnant 3 times by different guys but this was the first time she decided to keep the baby. Tony, her ex-boyfriend, threatened to break with her so many times if she kept the baby each time. She finally got sick of it and said she was going to have the baby no matter what. This time it was actually his baby too. When he heard that he threw her out with her week old baby. Anne was new to the group and was still uncomfortable around everyone but they all had welcomed her into the group. Helen had seen her walking by the tracks and asked her if she would like a drink and a blanket. She agreed and decided to stay with them.
Bobby awakened crying. Helen went over and held the small boy in her arms. He was shaking. “Momma, Momma”
“Ssh..” Helen soothed the boy. His eyes grew heavy as Helen rocked him back to sleep.
Bobby’s Mom Natasha, was a drug addicted prostitute. She was down by the river trying to collect from a run away client but he had taken off so fast she never found him. Jamie saw her and Bobby. Bobby was so thin and frail. Natasha stayed for only 3 days but went looking for food and never returned. They speculated she really went looking for drugs but no one knew for sure.
Suddenly a wind blew the tent down. The rain poured down on them. “Now what?” Helen asked looking at Jamie.
Jamie shrugged. “Maybe I should go hustling and get money for a hotel.”
Helen touched Jamie’s thin arm “no, it’s dangerous!”
“But what are we going to do? Rot? I am not giving up! I want for us to have a life!” She turned away from Helen.
“That’s not giving up Honey. We all want a better life but that is not the way to do it!” Helen looked into Jamie’s blue eyes.
“ What are we going to do.” There were tears in her eyes.
“There is no easy solution here. I am sorry if I had it I would. Let’s just go to the shelter for tonight. We will worry about tomorrow when it comes.”
“ I am so sick of worrying about tomorrow. What if there are no more tomorrows”
Jamie sat down and put her face in her hands.
Suddenly a man spoke behind them. “ Excuse me you need to move on to somewhere else.”
It was a police officer. He stood there in his beautiful blue uniform and flashed his sliver badge. The gun sat noticeably as his side. Jamie nodded. The Police officer went to his car watching as they gathered their stuff.
It was time to move on anyways. The river may have drowned them plus they were other parts of the city to explore. They never knew were they headed next but it was important that they were going somewhere and they rarely got lost. They knew their way around town.

The End