And you don’t even have a home…

Shan had invited me along to the RE with her and Ned, and I gladly went along. I told her I didn’t have any money but that I’d be glad to just chill. She ended up telling me "For your presence, it’s worth shouting". Awwwww, she’s so so sweet. So I got to chill with a few drinks and some fries & gravy, yum yum. I LOVE those fries & gravy! And I’m not even a gravy fan.

Ronan was there so I got to catch up with him. Along came some random and sat with us, his name was Ian. It was weird that he was just joining us, but he said he was just hangin’ out and waiting to see if some people he knew would be around tonight. Anyhow, we were talking about stupid shit that I couldn’t care less about. About smoking – cigarettes vs cigars vs pot. Like wtf? And about cologne ? And about South America. Ian was like "Yeah I think South America would be a cool country to go to except down south where Chile is". Both me and Ronan looked at him blankly, having both been there ourselves, and asked him "Why?" Ian feigned shock and said "Oh haven’t you heard?" I revealed that in fact Ronan had been to Chile, and Ronan said "Yeah and it was awright". Ian then said "Well, what part of town did YOU stay at ?!" as though he’d been to Chile himself. (Had he been to Chile or any part of South America he would’ve easily picked up that I was South American myself, hello. I didn’t bother revealing that I am). Later on we were talking about how Spanish changes so much from one Latin country to another, and Ian says "Oh that’s just like English. Like Australian and American English is different". We went on to explain that the differences in Spanish are much wider as opposed to English. So we all started coming up with examples of English differences. The Americans say sidewalk, we say footpath. We have words like cheeky, daggy, and pekish but Americans don’t know what these words mean. The Irish say poke, for fucking, but in Oz that just means literally jabbing someone with your elbow or your finger. Like poking an eye out. Americans call the butt fanny, which we think is weird because that’s an old-fashioned word for vagina. And we say ‘dear’ for expensive – if you’re a bit old-fashioned like Ronan! lol – and the Irish say "What, dear to your heart?" ANYHOW, so Ian suddenly pipes up with "Ohhhh when I was in America there was this word they didn’t get over there – this word that we use all the time…" and he’s looking at us, like expecting us to come up with the word for him. We were just staring at him. Then he makes out like he can’t remember, but finally came up with some random word that I don’t remember now, and he says "Oh you don’t wanna know what it means over in America". We sat there waiting for the answer and were like "What does it mean in America?" and he was like "Oh you don’t wanna know… Let’s just leave it at that…" he says with a laugh.

By now I was really annoyed. Not only did he just randomly come and join mine and Ronan’s conversation without knowing us, but he was spinnin shit and I can’t STAND IT when I pick up that someone’s lying through their teeth. As fuckn IF he had travelled ANYWHERE.

Anyhow, Ian left us for a good while and I was telling Ronan that I’m liking Ian very much. When Ian returned to us though, he seemed more subdued. Almost as though he’d decided in the meantime to just be real with us. But Ronan started teasing him instead. And it was just a bit awkward for awhile. Eventually Ian started opening up to us. In actual fact, he is a Homeless Person.

He was expelled from school when he was 3/4 of the way through Grade 9, he was kicked out of his house at some point when his parents changed the locks on him, he was in gaol recently for about 3mths due to minor fraud, and he has recently been sacked from his job. Although his parents are wealthy (his Dad’s a CEO in Sydney, his mum works for a parliamentarian, and his sister is a diplomat in the US – "and then there’s ME" he says with a twinge of pain in his eyes) he has no connections with them because he is "more than black sheep of the family". After this revelation, he said "So if either of you want to buy me a drink…" But it wasn’t a yeah-buy-me-a-drink-mate  kind of question.. the tone of his voice was more like so-if-you-can-help-cheer-me-up-tonight kind of question. Ronan bought him a beer, and Ian was extremely thankful to him. Later on, when Shan had come back and she’d bought us the fries, I offered some to Ian and he looked at me like I was an angel. I urged him "Go on, just have some". He said politely "These are more-ish". Later on I said "Gosh I’m STARVING, I’ve come straight from work and I haven’t had anything to eat since midday". The conversation flowed on. Some time later he happened to mention that he hadn’t had anything to eat since yesterday. I blurted "Go for your life ay! Just have them". And he had the rest. Later he specifically went up to Shannon and said "Hay, I just want to thank you for buying those chips" and she was like "It’s all cool man!" Little did she know just where his thanks was coming from.

He kept hanging about, as he knew I was friendly enough I guess, and I asked him "So what are you up to this weekend?" He said "Ahhh maybe like, jack-all". I said "Well, you could look for a job". (He had mentioned earlier that he had a job lined up in another few weeks). He said "It makes it hard without internet access". I said "Oh fuck that’s right ! We depend on the internet so much hay! It’s so annoying!" Then later I said "What about those employment places , they have free internet access there" and he said helplessly, "You have to be on Centrelink to be able to go to them". Again I expressed frustration. Clearly, he has tried everything.

I wanted to help him in some way, and I couldn’t think for the life of me how I could help this 21yo guy who doesn’t even look homeless ! He’s got lots of potential, it’s just that he has obviously made a few REALLY bad choices in his life. And I felt so helpless because I couldn’t offer ANYTHING. I thought perhaps I could give him a bed and hot shower for the night – even though he’d mentioned that he is staying at a charity place at the moment. I thought perhaps I could help him with a resume on our computer, send a few off using our internet. But fear strikes, you know. Because you JUST don’t know…. You don’t know at the end of the day if he’s a con-artist – on one extreme of the spectrum. Or if he has other Homeless Friends who break into peoples’ homes. You don’t know… You just don’t know who you’re dealing with ! I wanted to at least get his number, but didn’t know if it would be rude to ask for one and then have him say he doesn’t even have a mobile phone!

I slipped into my huge King Size bed last night, with over a thousand dollars worth of manchester to make it all the more cosy , warm and comfortable, and I couldn’t stop thinking about Ian. I hoped that he would be okay. That he would be comfortable tonight, that he would have had a love

ly night after all.. I just hoped, it was all I could do…

I have woken up this morning and I’m still thinking about Ian… And Sinjay is so negative towards this guy ! He keeps saying "Well clearly it’s all of his own doing" with disgust and disdain. And I snap back "IT DOESN’T MATTER !!! It doesn’t matter how he got there ! The fact remains that he is cold at night, and he is sleeping on some bench or some concrete floor with occasional charity accommodation, and he isn’t eating !! It doesn’t matter how he got there – every homeless person got there in some way or another!"

I really want to do something about this.. you know.. Over the years I have openly given my leftover Maccas to the odd homeless person who asked for it… And it felt wonderful to help out in some tiny little way… But… I need to do more.. I want to do more..

So I’m going to research it… I’m going to really look into it and find out how I can help….

For Ian.