About 2 weeks ago it was pouring hard. Like tons.
There's a bum who lives in a shopping cart around my place. I had never met him but had heard of him. He knows my roommates and watches their cars in the back lot. He makes sure everything is under control. They told me he was nice. Well on the night that I went to a stranger's apartment for a bit of pillow fun, I received a text from Audrey. " Don't get scared when you get back, The Bum is sleeping inside tonight." I thought that was hilarious so I left in a hurry and rushed back home. As I walked in a heard a loud boom than went straight for Audrey's bedroom where I woke her up, told her about the kinky adventure I had just got back from and giggled at the fact that The Bum was actually the one who got scared of me when I walked in. He was supposed to sleep in the entrance but (without my roommates approval) went to our kitchen and slept on our bench. The loud boom was him falling off when he heard me open the door... LOL.
I went to my room but then I got hungry. And I can't sleep when I'm hungry. But I was shy of going in my kitchen because The Bum was sleeping. After a few minutes of deciding whether or not I should go and if I should bother putting decent clothes on before going (if he's sleeping he won't know what I'm wearing right?) I tiptoed to the kitchen, opened the pantry delicately, made myself a bowl of honey Shreddies in a quiet fashion and proceeded to eat silently. I never once looked at him. I was shy! As I'm putting the bowl in the dishwasher, again trying to be as silent as I can, I hear: "I'm not sleeping."
He wasn't sleeping. And has seen me go through all this trouble of being quiet as a mouse for no reason. Hmmm... So we started talking. His name is Ted. Lost his wife in a fire a few years back. LOVES The Rolling Stones and was grateful that my roommate gave him a pair of socks. Ted is a polite bum. He saw I was hungry so he opened the fridge and showed me the food he had brought for us. It was a thank you for letting him sleep inside. He brought us food. Funny how that works.
When I woke up, he was gone. But when I got back the next evening he walked in on me eating a bowl of cereal again. He said he knows he should ask permissions but my roommate was in his room with his girlfriend so he didn't know if he should bother them? It wasn't raining, or cold. But I'm not good at being straight forward with people I pity. I told him that no, he shouldn't bother them, and it's fine for tonight. Just talk with him tomorrow.
Later that night, Seaweed got out of the bedroom and I heard her bark. At Ted. The next morning my roommate told me that he would let Ted know that he can't sleep inside anymore. He says we've been good enough to let him sleep inside on that rainy night, and we're better than to make someone who has it hard's life worst.
That makes sense. We can't have a smelly hobo sleeping in our apartment every time it's rainy outside. But now that we've let him in once, what happens in winter? When it gets close to -40 some nights? What happens then? How do we keep our home our sanctuary but help out others who need it without crossing any lines?
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