Chapter 4 Homeless

• It was day three and she had been staying in the dingiest cheapest room available within the city. She was burning her money fast.
• It was lunchtime when she started counting her money. She had been walking around the city trying to find a job but couldn't find any, and soon it would be dark. She didn't factor in the exact emergency situation, it would be easier for her to get a job in a smaller city where more people would still help a stranger in need.
• In a bigger city, no one was willing to hire a homeless person, when so many other qualified people were still in need of a job. She even went to a small diner, where the owner said that they couldn't afford a new waiter with the current economy.
• "And how can you even work with that cast on your arm girl?" the last owner of an old antique shop asked her, to which she just shrugged. Perfectly knowing that it would be impossible for her to find a job. And even more impossible for her to get a bus to get to the suburbs and try her luck there with the last couple of dollars in her hand.
• By the end of the day she was sitting down crying on the park bench, it was almost dark and she didn't have a place to sleep for the night. She was finally homeless and was playing different scenarios in her head. From sleeping under a bridge that she had passed earlier to laying herself on that exact bench which she was sitting at.
• Her stomach was rumbling, but she didn't dare to spend more of her money before she could get a job. She had decided the afternoon sandwich that she had bought half price because of its expiration date was her meal of the day.
• "Hey miss, are you okay?"
• She was stunned when a policewoman tapped her on her shoulder. Her heart beats a thousand miles per hour, she couldn't even hear her from the busy sound of her heartbeat.
• "Miss...I'm officer Garcia...are you lost?"
• She must've seen her cast peeking from her oversize denim jacket and her bruise color skin tone on her cheek and jaw. The officer didn't try to push her with more probing questions.
• "I'm...I..." she was trying to form her sentence, though she was afraid that the police would recognize her from the news.
• "I know a nice warm shelter just around the corner. They have food and a bed, they will take you in to rest for the night, you don't have to worry about anything else. Come on..."
• Officer Garcia managed to convince her to take her to the shelter. That night she did sleep under a roof in a warm clean bed along with other homeless people.
• She had never felt so low about herself. She was perfectly aware that she was at the lowest point of her life yet, without even knowing what would happen tomorrow and the day after.
• Her life had just gotten worse with each passing day. Years before she thought she was at her breaking point when she was trapped in an abusive marriage. Then she thought she was done when she had lost her baby.
• And days earlier she thought she was finally free when she killed her husband. But she was not prepared when life gave her another twist of fate.
• That night she slept holding her bag close, and the rest of her money even closer. She was not taking any chances with a room full of homeless people.
• Just like herself.
• *****
• Morning came too fast, she was up on her feet and was leaving the shelter once she saw people leaving for the day.
• Where do homeless people go?
• What do homeless people do?
• She was asking herself these questions, while she slipped her way out of the shelter. That day was spent trying to find another job and miserably failed.
• Looking at the town's library, she decided to use their internet and cruise through the online employment list. She typed down jobs with basic skill employment. Though she did have a degree in finance, obviously without the paperwork it would be useless.
• An hour later she was back on the street with several places she had jotted down that might hire her. Then she decided it was time to get her meal of the day when she looked at a little girl who was going to get into trouble.
• The barely teenage girl was slipping bread and some chocolate bars into her oversized jacket when the store clerk saw her. The girl was about to run when she bumped into her.
• "Go...I got you." She whispered to the girl, then she paced her steps and run as fast as she could.
• "You! Don't you fucking dare run!" the clerk was about to get the girl when she stood deliberately standing in his way and was about to make a run when she was roughly grabbed by a strong hand.
• "Where do you think you're going?" his smooth deep voice seemed to stunned her, aside from his strong grip on her still bruised arm.
• She hissed from the pain, yet he didn't appear to care. He had been watching from the corner of the store, and to his view, she was covering for her shoplifter friend. And to him, her hissing in pain was her way of trying to slip away from her crime.
• "Come, you're coming with me to the station."
• Her eyes were wide as she listened to his words, the one place she dreaded the most and she was dragging herself for being stupid enough to put out her neck for a stranger.
• "Hey how about the money? Who's going to pay?" the clerk was standing with his hands on his waist, not letting them passed.
• "Just be glad that I'm here to process all of this dude, now move out of my way. I said MOVE!"
• His harsh words made the clerk move aside, but it made her tensed and made her hyperventilate in seconds.
• "Woman, don't play with me. Come on." His grab on her wounded arm was getting tighter. Then the dizziness came and she suddenly lost the ability to stand on her own two feet.
• "Shit! Dude, open the fucking door!"
• He took her into his arms and carry her to his car, she was laid on the back seat of his black SUV then he quickly opened all of the windows. Somewhere in his mind, he was quick to think, that he didn't want to lay her on the dirty floor of the small convenience store.
• "You need to stay with me, don't close your eyes...calm yourself down...breathe in and out slowly..." he was putting her bag on the car floor, and resting her back to his body trying to regulate her blood flow and make her breathe easier.
• Then he cursed when he starts to see her closely and finally notice her delicate face, which was decorated with bruises that were just starting to heal. Seconds later he realized a slight difference weighing her right arm, making him instinctively rolled up her oversize denim jacket uncovering her medical cast. Then he rolled her other side revealing more bruises, where his hand had just grabbed her with force.
• "Damn it...who did this to you?" there was concern in his voice, but she was still in her panic state as she was laying in a police car. Her life flashed in front of her, fearing that she would get jailed then sentenced for her crime, and put on the death sentence.
• Maybe it's for the best.
• The woman's thoughts wondered, she was tired of running, she kept on thinking that maybe it was her time to surrender for her crime.
• But her survival instinct got the best of her when she eventually formed her words.
• "No hospital...please...I'm fine, I will be...I just need to..." her small weak voice just made his heart hurts. That voice just brings back the memory of his mother and his abusive father.
• He was five when his mother passed away by his father's bare hand, as he beat her to her death.
• The system had taken him in, and by sheer luck, he was adopted by a nice wealthy couple. But the memory stayed in his head. That was why he decided to dedicate himself to fight for the weak, and enrolled himself in the police department.
• He knew all the signs having dealt with domestic abuse daily before his career took off and he had become one of the best homicide detectives in the country.
• He must've gone mad when he rolled up the windows and decided to take her back to his house. He had broken all rules but deep down he had a strange feeling about her and knew that he had to go with his gut and save her.
• "Just stay still, I got you..."