Better days

Whattaya' been up to James?
Been to church.
And did you speak to God while you were there?
Many times.

Steve had his own apartment at Mercury Courts (he estimates) for 2-3 years. That's when we met and he'd been on the street then for a good long time. It's also why he has ties to Barney. They were neighbors. I wrote in that original story (which is no longer linkable) that he moved in with two hefty bags of other people's clothes. It's important to understand that Steve is an individual. He isn't the cookie-cutter model for every homeless person or every alcoholic or everyone that needed assistance or housing and I don't want to project that image. He is not representative of anything or anyone, other than himself. He's in this story because I've known him for so long and because he's willing to put up with me asking him stupid questions. Yesterday, I used the term - stupid question, when he and I were talking in the van. I wanted to ask him a hygiene question and didn't know how to phrase it. He leveled his eyes and the hand holding the cigarette at me and said:

There are no stupid questions. The stupid question, is the one that isn't asked.

The friendgirl is hidden in this photo because she's always been nervous about being seen anywhere, let alone on the internet. This was taken about three years ago.