HOLIDAY FOR A NIGHT.
Just after sunrise in an alley behind the supermarket downtown Henry Johnson woke up.
Most of the time he felt sad to wake up. He often hoped that he would not. But today was a special day.
Johnson pushed his cart around the city streets looking for cans and plastic bottles. He did this every single day to buy food and a few items to keep him fairly clean.
Most of the time he would do this till about 5PM and sell his recyclable items to the scrape metal yard. They paid him fairly well and in cash. Today he was there at around 2PM.
After he sold his cans he talked to Robert who ran the scales.
“Robert I got something to do tonight. Can I leave my cart here and pick it up tomorrow?”
“Sure thing. Park it behind the shed.”
Henry rolled his cart behind the shed and wrapped a chain and a padlock around the wheels. He was glad to have a safe place to leave his cart for the night.
He reached under the cart and pulled out a small suitcase and took it with him.
Two blocks from the lower end of downtown was the Jackpot Motel. It was a rather rundown place that never was a very good place to stay. It would do good business during the holidays when all the good places were booked up. The rest of the time it was nearly empty.
Before walking into the office of the motel Henry open the suitcase and found an old well worn wallet. He pulled out a hundred dollar bill from the wallet and put it in his pocket.
“Hello Henry.” Said the man at the front counter of the motel office. “Nice to see you again.”
“Thank you. I would like a room for the night once again.”
“Are you sure you won't stay a couple of nights this time?”
“No just the one night.”
Henry paid the 30 dollar rental using the one hundred dollar bill. The counter man handed him the change and the room key.
“Check out is at noon. But I won't rush you.”
“Thank you.”
The room Henry rented was one of the better rooms in this rundown place. Henry liked the room. It was much better than sleeping in the alley behind the supermarket.
He hoped that no one would try to claim his spot while he was gone that night.
Henry filled the bathroom sink with hot water and stripped off his clothes. He rinse his clothes out in the hot water and hung them up over the curtain bar in front of the shower/bathtub.
Henry got into the shower and washed himself for a long time. The hot water felt good to him. He scrubbed his hair with the little bar of soap that came with the room.
When Henry left the shower he walked to the bed where he had left the suitcase. He open it up.
Inside the case was a nice pair of black pants and a white dress shirt. Also a belt and a pair of shoes.
Henry put the clothes on and left the room.
Not far from the motel was a barber college. A student gave him a haircut and a shave for 15 dollars.
Henry's head and face felt odd after the visit to the barber. The cool air felt good on his now bare face. Henry liked that feeling. It had been a year since he had that feeling.
He walked over to the nice end of Broadway. He rarely went there to look for cans. The police would often suggest to the homeless that there was better places to be for them downtown.
Henry decided to have dinner in a retro style diner. He had a meatloaf with mash potatoes and a large piece of carrot cake.
It was a slow night and after he ate Henry was allow to sit at the table with no one urging him to move along so that they could use the table for someone else.
He watched the families that came in to eat together at the tables.
Sometimes he wished that he had a family. His ex wife did not want children. Just as well he thought. She would have made an awful mother he was sure. She would have wanted to keep the kids too along with everything else she took from him with the help of that lawyer and judge.
On his way back to the motel he stopped at a store and bought a six pack of cola and a bunch of candy and snacks.
Back in the room Henry undressed and carefully folded his good clothes and put them aside.
He placed his bag of snacks and the colas on the nightstand next to the bed and then turned on the TV set.
He laid there and ate his snacks as he watched TV. He would doze off around 3 in the morning.
Henry woke up the next day around 10:30AM. He laid there on the bed for a little while but finally forced himself to get up.
He put on the old clothes he rinse out the day before. He packed away the good clothes back into the suitcase. He would take those to the dry cleaners later on in the day.
He watched TV and finished off the cola and snacks he got the night before.
At ten minutes to 12 noon he left the room and went to the motel office.
The front counter was being tended by the son of the man who checked Henry in the night before.
“Hello Mr. Johnson. Happy Birthday to you.”
“Thank you young man. Tell your father I had a plesant stay once again.”
Henry placed the room key down on the counter.
“We'll see you next year sir.”
“I hope so. Good bye.”
As Henry walked away from the motel he wondered if he would be back next year. He was passed sixty he had only four one hundred dollar bills left in his suitcase.
He decided not to worry about it. He had cans to go collect if he was going to eat that night.
The End.
Copyright 2012 By TEEL- Please do not re post or reprint without permission.
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