Sorry for the delay in this post. With the holidays and everything I just didn't get a chance to sit down and write. Here we go...
It was around 3 in the afternoon and the five of us (Dirk, Jadon, Tracy, Bryan and me) were walking away from the Salvation Army towards the River Market to get a cup of coffee. On the way there Bryan was saying that we would probably run into Billy (the alcoholic that Bryan helped change tent locations) and his friend Mike. Mike had called Bryan a little earlier and said that Billy was really drunk and he was going to have to drag him back to the Salvation Army. Not too long after we started talking about Billy we look down the road and saw Mike.
When we got to him we could see he was really upset. He said that he tried! He tried to get Billy to come with him but he just wouldn't leave. Mike told us the story. Billy was drunk (and is also on 12 different medications for all sorts of things including blood pressure). He started to get a little out of hand so the security officer at the River Market told them to leave or he would call the police. Well Billy decided he needed to go to the bathroom first, so he did. The problem was it was in the River Market and the police officer was already there. The officer told Mike he had two options. Either the officer could take Billy to jail or he could take him to the hospital. Mike said to take him to the hospital! They loaded Billy into a squad car and Mike started walking back to the Salvation Army and that is when we met him.
He told Bryan to go up to Billy's tent and get his bag. It had all of his I.D. in it along with all of his medications. He also wanted Bryan to charge Billy's phone and bring it up to him. Mike opened up his backpack and pulled out several chargers. He sorted through them to figure out which one was Billy's. He gave Bryan the charger and the phone and then Mike walked off.
We decided to turn around and not go to the River Market for coffee. We decided that we would go to this place down under the train station that Bryan had got coffee the day before. We all walked back past the Salvation Army and towards the train station. As we walked I found out that Dirk had been laid off from his job up in northern Arkansas and he thought Little Rock would have more work. When he got here he found out that was not really the case. The three of them were staying in the Salvation Army and Dirk and Jaden were out looking for jobs every day. They were applying in person and online (they go to the library and look jobs up that way) as well as going to the day-labor agencies to see what was available. In order for them to stay at the Salvation Army they had to spend a certain amount of time looking for jobs and fill out forms as to where they were going and what they were doing. I also found out that they were going to be leaving the Salvation Army in a couple days because Tracy was getting kicked out. She was 4 months pregnant at the time and could not walk all over town looking for a job. Because she wasn't out looking for a job there was a limited amount of time she was allowed to stay at the Salvation Army and her time was almost up.
When we got the the "restaurant" under the train station it didn't appear to be open. We walked up and tried the door and it was locked. Also there was nothing on the window or door that told us what time they would open up! We saw a couple of guys working on a sound system at a second door that was about 25 feet to our right and up on a porch (we had walked up the front steps to the door to what was the main entrance.) We decided to ask them if we could just buy a few cups of coffee. When we go over to the door we opened it up and asked if we could buy some coffee. We told them that Bryan had got some yesterday and as we were talking to them the manager, who had given Bryan coffee and a donation for the outreach ministry the day before, walked up behind us. He explained to us that this was not really a restaurant. It was an event venue that people rented for special events. We told him we were just looking for a cup of coffee and he told us to follow him. We walked to the back into the kitchen and he started to get coffee for us all! He doctored it up the way everyone wanted it and Tracy got a hot chocolate. We talked with him for a few minutes and told him how much we appreciated his hospitality. He was the only non-homeless person who didn't work at a shelter or soup kitchen that really reached out to us while I was on the street. Well he was the only one besides the people that came to visit us (we had some friends visit...but that will come in a minute.)
So now we all had coffee (and one hot chocolate). We decided to relax and sit on the steps and talk. Bryan got a phone call from someone who was going to stop by and say hello. As we sat there we talked more about where everyone was from and how they all got here. As we were talking about Jadon and his military background a car pulled up. It turns out that it was Sharon Bailey. She is a woman that Bryan knew from the church he went to before he started at Benton First Assembly. She was coming down just to hang out and see what was going on. We stayed on the steps and she got to know Tracy, Dirk and Jadon. She asked each of them about their job history and where they were from. Jadon found out that Sharon was in the military too. It was a good time of just sitting around and talking.
We were all done with our drinks and it was almost time for the three of them that were staying at the Salvation Army to go back inside (if you are staying the night at the Salvation Army you have to be inside by a certain time, somewhere around 4:30 or 5...I don't really remember exactly) because they lock the doors after that. When we got back up to the sidewalk across from the Salvation Army Bryan got another phone call. This one was from channel 11 news station. They wanted to come down and interview him right now!
We will talk about what happened after his phone call in part 4.
