6:20 a.m. I woke up in my small tent. It’s a warmer day. I called into Wesley’s tent. Wesley responds, and says that he had trouble sleeping last night because of all the noise the machines were making over at the dump. I didn’t hear the noise, I slept like a rock. Wesley and I get our gear together and get ready for the day. Wesley had said that he had work at noon time but wanted to go to the parish cupboard in West Springfield for lunch, and he said I could meet people there. There’s a woman that works at the parish cupboard named Lorraine who Wesley considers an angel, she helped him when he lost everything during the flood. She has been an important factor in Wesley’s life since he’s been experiencing homelessness.
9:00 a.m. Wesley walks over to the package store to get some beer. I walk over to get my bike that is locked up at the Active and Fit Gym. I intercept Wesley riding my bike towards the parish cupboard. Lunch doesn’t start until 11:30 so we have a lot of time to sit and chill and talk. I did an interview with Wesley. He talks about his idea of God’s and Clods. When the parish Cafe opens we get our food and I meet Lorraine. She’s an older woman, small in stature and she is very sweet. While Wesley and I are eating, Wesley gets a call that there is no work today. Wesley becomes angry, slams his phone and seems to tear up. He was banking on this work and this money, and now he doesn’t know what to do with the day. Wesley goes outside and I take some time to talk to Lorraine. She tells me that she sees homeless people come and go. She’ll see people for a while and then they disappear. She said that she was there the day that Wesley got his job broken. I can tell that the circumstances of the people she serves affects her. I think to myself, why is it that we can’t fix other people’s problems?
After I talk to Lorraine I go out to check on Wesley. I tell him that I plan on heading back east. I asked him if there’s anything I can do before I leave. He asked me for 20 bucks, so I went to the liquor store ATM and I took 20 bucks out for him. I gave him the money and he walked off, but he asked me to stay in touch with him, which I will do.
12:30 p.m. After Wesley left I talked with a man named Armond. He did not want to be recorded, but he told me about being homeless. Armond told me that he was walking down the train tracks with his wife one day, he warned her to not stay so close to the tracks, and he said a train came at this time and clipped her in the head killing her instantly. After his wife died Armond decided to live in the woods which he did for 4 years, now his mother is sick so he is her caretaker. Armond is alcoholic. He is now taking care of his mother who is elderly.
1:00 p.m. I ride my bike over to my truck. It’s a warm day and it’s nice out. I put the bike in the truck. I locked the bike to the bed cover that is folded up and laying in the bed of the truck so it wouldn’t be easy for someone to just steal my bike. There’s a nice woman that I met in Worcester. She has been texting with me and I’ve been trying to make plans to spend time with her. She suggests that we maybe do something and I can meet her on my way back east. I decided to go into planet fitness, the active and fit gym that I’ve been using for a way station. I take a shower as if I’m going to be spending time with another human being and I don’t want to offend them with my body odor. After I take a shower I text her and I begin to think of a plan for my travels home. She doesn’t get back to me so I decide to take a ride to Framingham and visit Vicky, and from there take a ride to Lancaster to visit my cousin and his family who I love dearly.
2:00 p.m. I drive out to Framingham and per usual Vicky is working at the Pearl Street Cafe. Vicky and I spend some time together, she lets me hang out with her while she cooks the food. She says a man is going to be donating cooked chickens for the people for dinner. She lets me cook a little food and we have a conversation. After I was released from prison my aunt took me to the Pearl Street Cafe to volunteer and Vicky was one of the kindest, most caring people I’d ever seen. She treated the homeless people that she fed like they were all old friends or family members giving them hugs and joking with them. She was a big inspiration to me in helping form that part of myself. Vicki and I take pictures with hats that were knitted by a 95-year-old woman who knits hats for the homeless people every year.
3:30 p.m. After hanging out with Vicky for a while I decide to drive around Framingham and look for the guy that allegedly kicked hulk Hogan’s ass. This story was told to me while I was homeless in Framingham and I had never got an interview with him. I knew what he looked like, and was hoping that he would be in the street. I didn’t see this old bruiser, so I began my journey over to my cousin’s house in Lancaster. While I was driving to my cousin’s house I went through a town called Berlin. It’s a small Massachusetts town, and my grandparents used to live there on a big plot of land and a little house where they grew old together. There’s also a family grave site there. I stop by to visit my fallen family members including my sister who died of a drug overdose when she was 18 years old.
4:30 p.m. I arrive at my cousin’s house and it is refreshing to see my family spend time with my cousin, his wife, his sister-in-law was there with her kids, and my cousin’s three children. We talk about all kinds of stuff that’s been going on. I tell my cousin about the Karen Reed case cuz I’m wearing my Karen Reed shirt. My cousin and I also talk business, I have money put away that I do not touch and I’m interested in investing in my cousin’s real estate business. I wonder to myself what a life would be like with a wife, children, a house, and responsibilities. The idea frightens me but it also comforts me. I dream one day to have a life close to the earth where I might be able to have those things in a society of people that actually care for each other.
7:00 p.m. We all eat dinner. The kids have a kids table and the adults have the adults table. We have conversations about our lives and our struggles. Eventually my cousin’s sister-in-law leaves with her children and we spend the rest of the night playing 007. My cousin’s kids kick our butts.
Around 9:00 p.m. I’m tired, I’m exhausted. My cousin has given me the smallest child Eden’s room, which is a guest room but the house is getting redone. I go up there and I settle in for a long night’s rest.