This text was written in 2007 for my piece called "dontdiemyfriendtommy".
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Totally depressed. In the UK...London.... I had just 1 pound. No way to take Tube either bus, to eat and drink... First he was sitting bit far from me, in front of the same building. He was drinking beer. Then, coming. "Do you sleep here? Are you homeless?" I said "yes. You also?" Then, "Yes. Do you wanna beer?" I said "SURE, thanks." "Whre are you from?" "Japan. And you? From UK?" "I am from Skotland. Well, can I sleep besides you tonight? This place looks very nice." "Yes, why not." "OK, nice. You want more beer?" "Ohhhh but I do not have money." "It's ok I will buy." "YOU SURE?" "Yes. You know where can I buy?" "Yes, in the internet cafe, you go right and turn left on the next street. They are open 24hours." "OK. I'm backin minute." His name is Tommy. He was looking for job. He speaks really Scotish English, sometime I could not hear precisely what he was speaking. He seemed over 40 years old, might be almost 50..... We were sleeping in the center of London. We were drinking together and talked a lot. Drinking was not to be crazy. Drinkin was to sleep. It was already beginning of the winter, very very cold. We could not sleep in without drunk... Before he came, I also tried to sleep in, but did not make it, shaking and thinking too much.... Slowly, he started to talk about his story. Actually he had a job beforehand. He had even SUZUKI 4WD. He said "Japanese car is very well. My car had not broken at all for a long time." However, he was cut off from the company, I am not sure why....I hesitated to ask that.... Somehow he lost everything, he was gotten out his house, because he could not pay the rent any more. Then, he decided to come to London to look for a job. Tommy said, "I paid 100 pounds for a ticket from Scotland to London. 100pounds! I can go to Warsaw with 100pounds! How expensive." But he could not get any job ans just be in London nealy 1 month as homeless. He explained that. "None of company employ person who has no home. But the home is extremely expensive here. Look this apartments. I think millions of pounds per month, because here is really center of London. No way." Now he is given some money from the goverment. But the amount is just for eating, not enough to rent the flat. So seems he has no way to get out of his situation.... I said "It is getting colder in winter... You don't have kind of shelter for the homeless?" He replied "There is. I went there once. But it was not good. So many people there are addicted to the drug and alchol. Crazy." I did not know anything about the situation of homeless in London. I simply asked some questions to him. He answered, they have so many homelesses. Some of have been there as homeless over 10 years.... how it is hard... And most of them are alchoholics... --speak "I am shaking shaking, very cold, very very very cold cold cold...no, no,... no way to escape" I have been seen so many holessness even in Japan. Some of them seemed problem with their mind, psycologically, or some smelled much of alchoholics.... and sometime I had felt scary and wanted to exclude them from the society. But now I understand why they were such a exordinaly problems... When I was lying on the bench and cardboard, I was feeling really stuck. I had no hope to escape. When Tommy was coming closed to and talked to me, a plent of my memory were cercling.... When seeing people walking on the street, I was feeling "wow how much money they have...how happy it is....", even young people... When we go to fall in sleep, he pointed out the camera above us and said that they can watch us, we should take care of our behave, otherwise they are coming and exclude us... So we should not pee around. And he showed me to wrap his body with his black sleeping back to hide himself from the camera. Some of people might say, the cause to become homeless is because of the luck of effort of each homelessness. Homelesness do not try to work, they hesitate to work very hard job... I also once asked Tommy, "Have you thought about to a simple job like a waiter to get some money?" He said just "No, I do not like." I could not ask any more. I really understood his feeling. The reason I escaped Japan is totally same, "No I do not like.", even somehow I had a job to earn enough moeny to live.... We are not machines. |