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I’d hoped he’d be somewhere with someone on Thanksgiving, even if that someone wasn’t me, and, well, that somewhere was here.
I’d learned, and I had the requisite materials with me.
Four bags full of bottles of water (sorry environment) and a backpack stuffed with packs of beef jerky, boxes of protein bars and hydration packets.
Oh yeah, and an empty used sharps container.
Homer shuffled out first, as Homer always did. I wasn’t sure Homer slept. I was sure Homer was King of the Homeless Encampment.
I was sure of this because I’d learned something else. I had to make Homer trust me before anyone else did.
This took time.
And lots of bottles of water and packs of beef jerky.
He said nothing as he took two of the bags and the sharps container from me.
Then he mumbled, “Late night.”
“Is he here?”
My eyes had adjusted to the dark. I’d hit the encampment, and in the dim light that came from the city and various camp lanterns dotting the space, I saw his eyes in his dangerously tanned, leathery, whiskered face catch mine.
And I saw my answer.
No.
My brother wasn’t there.
“Seen him?” I asked as we began to move through the oddly organized labyrinth of tents, tarps that created crude shelters, loaded grocery carts and the scattering of debris.
“Did you bring clean syringes?”
This wasn’t an answer to my question, and sadly, my answer to his was, “Not this time.”
He nodded, reached into a bag, made a noise, and a hand came out of a tent.
He put a bottle of water in it as I shrugged off the backpack to pull out a bag of jerky.
Homer took that, tossed it into the tent, and we moved on.
We did this at two more tents before I said, “Homer.”
That was all I said, but he got me, so he stopped and turned to me.
And he stated it plainly. “You find him, you quit coming.”
Oh my God.
On the one hand, it felt good that he trusted me, and him saying that meant he and his brethren appreciated me. I didn’t have the resources to give much, and I knew I didn’t help their situation at all, but it was nice to understand the little I did meant something.
On the other hand, I needed to find my brother.
“Are you…keeping him from me?” I asked.
He shook his head.
But he said, “Others might.”
