Hustlers Gonna Hustle

It’s really depressing, but there are some men who approach me at the bus stop thinking that I’m desperate to get into a house, any house, any shelter….and will do whatever it takes.

Recently, I met this one older guy who seemed nice, bought me some snacks from Walgreens: protein bars, Reeses cups, Hostess cupcakes, water, and cookies. I’ll call him Donnie.

The next day, Donnie came by at 11ish after his shift at a local superstore. We chatted about his adult children, who never visit him (it’s their loss!) the fact that I don’t “belong out here” (you got that right!) and a few other topics.

I initially saw him as a fatherly, caring type. This was ruined by his remark that, “If it ever gets too bad out here, you can come over, we can stay on my sofa bed.”

Which got me reflecting on the following truth: Somewhere out there on a sofa bed with a man she doesn’t want to be with, a woman is saying to herself, “If it ever gets too bad here, I can always stay at the bus stop.”

The next night, he stopped by and announced he’d be going to Walgreens, did I want anything? Um yeah actually, I ventured. I could really use a book. A book? Yeah, it’s a nice distraction, it gets boring out here. It’s a nice escape.

Dear readers, Donnie came back to me with a copy of Readers’ Digest. For $4.95? He could have bought me a decent drug store novel. After the 5 minutes it took me to peruse the dross in that publication, I promptly trashed it. (I was going to bring it to the local soup kitchen, but it was filled with propaganda about the plandemic and the Ukraine, and I really didn’t want to foist that trash onto my presently unfortunate, downtrodden brothers and sisters.)

Apparently this guy, like so many others, see homeless-appearing women as a great opportunity to get laid with none to minimal effort.

(As if!)