On the floor were two single mattresses, heads up at the window, between the mattresses, a cardboard box, covered with a red cloth that supported a small lamp. Please not try to use too much electricity Thomas had said. This is very expensive. From a rusty metal clothes horse, an assortment of tired clothes hung. Near the foot of Special’s mattress was another door, padlocked from the other side that was the storeroom for the restaurant that could be accessed from the other side.
Special’s backpack was heavy with The Big Issue that he had just collected from the depot and he dumped the backpack on his mattress. No sign of Absimil the Fearless, he had taken to the streets early but that wasn’t unusual. He liked to be outside, to have space. Confined spaces made him anxious he said, particularly when he was alone. Most days he walked the streets, in all weather, socks and sandals.
Special had about an hour before he would start outside Foodworks which was just around the corner, so he had plenty of time to catch up with Absimil before he started selling. He thought he knew where to look. As Eliot shook the hand of Madan and watched Rajmata pick up his red rolling case and large backpack. As Jalal greeted Eliot without a hint of emotion and led the way to the yellow mini bus emblazoned with black letters, Madho Patti Junior Elementary School, Special set of for KFC. He always tried his best to convince Absimil, but he did not listen, or if he did, he took no notice. Special recited didn’t he know that fast food was addictive, didn’t he understand that it killed off many kinds of microbes and a small range of microbes will get you fat and sick. Like diabetes. Special had seen this on TV at the Salvation Army drop in centre. In a minute he was climbing down the stairs and in ten minutes, if he walked quickly, Colonel Sanders would be smiling at him and he would see Absimil. Ten minutes later he was right. Absimil was standing in the already long queue thinking about his popcorn chicken.
I knew you would be here eating that fucken shit. Geez Absimil how do you bloody Africans stay so bloody thin when you eat shit like this?
You know why I eat shit like this? Because I like it, but mostly because my friend Haarun is the day manager today and as you know he slips me some popcorn chicken for free when he is on duty.
Absimil paused as if he didn’t want to say anymore but he couldn’t do it, he couldn’t resist even though Special had heard it many times before.
You want to know why I’m so thin? Because I’m wired that way.That’s the way that Christians have to be wired in Sudan. That’s the way you are wired if you are hungry and shit scared every day, when your mother and sisters are abducted and raped and subjected to slavery and you don’t know where they are or whether they are still alive or what is coming next except that it won’t be good. You don’t care what you eat as long as you eat. What do you think would happen if KFC opened up a free kitchen in the refugee camps? Save your health talks for someone else.
Special’s face broke into a smile and he reached up and put one hand on Absimil’s shoulder.
Ok, Ok, I know, I know my friend. I hope you get fat one day.......... I will start selling the mag soon so I hope that we will have a little money for some treats tonight. I will see you at the Salvos about 5.30pm?
No problem. Don’t you want to wait and have some dirty bird with me?
Absimil smiled and waved at the departing back of Special.
Foodworks were happy for Special to sell The Big issue outside their front door. He was always friendly and polite and sometimes he attracted customers. Only seven dollars to read all about how two of the Monty Pythons were coming to Australia. Good morning, how are you today?Thanks very much, keep the change? Thanks very much and yes, yes you are right, last month the vendor profile was on me, Special, myself.
My bad luck started when I got hit in the side of the head by a golf ball when I was riding to work and my life sort of fell apart cos I started acting funny. I lost my job and I guess I must have been a bit strange after that because all my friends deserted me. They said that I was unpredictable and unstable and I suppose I was and to keep myself going I began smoking a heap of dope so I guess I wasn’t great company. About the same time my Dad had runo off with my Mum’s best friend and then my Mum got diagnosed with breast cancer. Yeh, I know what you are thinking. Lucky people can’t believe this. They think that I am exaggerating, making things up. But there are the very lucky people and therefore you have to have the very unlucky people too and bad luck grows on you, you become good at it. When my sister and brother sort of stopped talking to me I knew that it was time to piss off. So I moved to Darwin but I got mixed up with the wrong crowd and I became an alcho and things became pretty grim and I was homeless, just me and my dog Moe. I don’t want to go into details but one day when I was very pissed I did something that caused the death of my dog. Enough was enough so I made myself a new start. I stopped drinking and moved to Melbourne. I haven’t drunk any booze for two years now, the best decision I have ever made. Still, I don’t know how I managed to make the break except that I met this bloke called Bruce who was a major or something in the Salvation Army and he cared and he listened to me and slowly gave me advice and told me that God cared for all of us, not to let despair overcome me. Bruce probably puts my new life down to divine intervention, but I put it down to Bruce. Some people put shit on the Salvos but they do a lot of good things. At times I don’t know where I would be without them.
I was lucky when I returned to Melbourne, first because of the generosity of Thomas and Youixsie Lee who own the Laksa Queen restaurant. Plug Plug, delicious food. They gave me a roof over my head when I was walking the streets and then I met my best friend in the world Absimil and together we get through the challenges put in front of us day to day. I love Absimil. He came to Australia about four years ago from Sudan. We first met when we both chose the delivery doorway of Woolworths as our bedroom about six months ago and after that we would often arrange to doss down at the same place on many nights. Then I had my bit of luck with meeting Thomas and Youixsie so I asked them if Absimil would be able to move in with me. They are very generous and they said yes even though we can’t use much electricity in our two spaces. But it’s warm, it’s ours and Absimil and I have some privacy.
It was getting dark and quite cool when Special decided to call it quits. Six hours with plenty of chat and a lot to see but from the point of view of money it hadn’t been a great day. Seventeen sold and a measly $4 in tips, still he liked the interaction, it filled his day. Absimil came past about six o’clock. They had argued once because Special said, if you stand too close when I’m selling the mag you scare away the customers. Absimil was so black and so tall, and his suit trousers didn’t reach his socks and his socks were enclosed in old tourist sandals. His tight curls were wild on the side and then he was bald. Special thought that it was funny how many people were scared of other people who were a different colour. He loped up and said, lI’ve been watching cricket training and Special didn’t get it, how he liked cricket. Someone had once said that he looked like Curtly Ambrose. He and Curtly did have two things in common. How does he understand cricket Special wondered? Perhaps he didn’t understand it!
They walked down to the Salvos food kitchen and ordered their great vegetable soup with a bread roll that was a bit stale. Usually they kept to themselves. Most often the others were friendly and harmless but a couple of times some wierdos had been on ice and one never knew what they might do. Sometimes together they helped wash up and a couple of Salvo people might play a game of cards with them. Playing cards was a great way to pass the time, as Special liked to say, you can forget that dull ache of worries for a while when you are playing cards. Yesterday, Thomas and Youixsie asked them to help clean out the upstairs storeroom. They were looking forward to that.
Thanks for the game of cards fellows. Time we closed up.
When the Salvo packed up the cards and made for the office, they both stood up to go and Special raised himself up on his toes so that his mouth was as close to Absimil’s ears as he could get it.
I think it’s time for a cuddle Absimil, what do you say?
So they walked home, one tall, with a big head, upright and graceful, the other much shorter with a rolling limp of the painfully thin legs, goatee and a manbun. Different as you can get, except when it came to luck. Special unsnibbed their gate and they climbed their stairs and unlocked the padlock and felt