Shelter Kid
By: Jon Stewart
(© 2021 by the author)

The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's consent. Comments are appreciated at...

jstewart@tickiestories.us

Chapter 10

Friday the day of the tryout came. Josh tried warming up as best as he could. Jesse helped as well; then onto the real thing. Jesse went first, lay ups, foul shots, corner jumpers, then one on one against a kid his size. Jesse ate him up and Josh cheered his every move. Then it was Josh's turn. He missed 3 of 10 lay ups, 5 of 10 foul shots, 7 of 10 corner jumpers. The kid, he drew in the one of one out weighted him by 25 lbs. and had 3 inches on him. Josh made a several baskets but lost badly. The boy Jesse beat in one on one started saying something like grammar school is 2 blocks over. Jesse went over to him.

"Hey buddy, that's my good friend and you don't know shit about him. You keep messing with him and I'll mess with you." Then Jesse shouted, "Play ball Josh!!!"  Josh canned the next two shots, but it was too little too late. The coach came up to Jesse "Glad to have you on the team."  Then he looked at Josh, like, what are you doing here. But he was nice. "Try to put some weight on. Your form on your shot was excellent. Have you been playing ball?"

"Not really, Coach, Jesse and I played on a championship CYO 5th & 6^th, grade team. I haven't touched a basketball in 2 years except for the day before yesterday. I knew, I wouldn't make the team but I wanted to be here for Jesse."

Josh picked up his stuff and went over to congratulate Jesse.

"Hey congratulations, you made it; I'm proud of you. I'll practice over the summer and see you next year."

"Thanks for coming out; I heard you cheering it made a big difference." Jesse didn`t know what else to say or do. So, he gave Josh a big hug.

"Go get ‘em, new kid 1."

Pops was there to pick up the pieces, as well. He only tried out for his friend, Jesse. He knew he wasn't ready to play. Besides he had the coat drive to think about. They were late picking up Billy, at the mall. Josh warned him it might happen. Billy was in excellent spirits. He positively loved visiting Josh and Pops. It was a whole bunch of things. Of course, there was the sex games between him and Josh and getting out of the shelter was just the best medicine after a week of school. But it really was the chance to be a regular kid, in a real house, with people who loved him, and he loved back. That was what he loved, about the visits.

Josh was excited about the coat drive and he told Billy all the things Pops said to include in the speech. Together, they worked on the talk. Sunday morning rolled around, everyone had to be up early to be in the city at St Francis, for the 9:00 mass. Just like Josh had promised they were 15 minutes early.

Father Rick greeted them. "Hi Josh, you are looking good in your tie and sweater. Are you all ready?

"I hope so, Father. Pops said confidence counts and looking good makes you feel good so, maybe I am."

"I expect a bright young man like yourself will do fine."

They went inside. Father Rick said "Right after announcements, I'll introduce you. So, as they start to read them, you get up and start edging your way to the podium. Take your time, before you start your talk, make sure the mic is about even with your mouth. Don't rush your talk, like you just want it to end. People won't be able to understand what you are saying. Find a friendly face and keep going back to that person, as if it is just you and him having a talk. Relax, try to get comfortable with the people."

"I'll try my best, Father."

"That's all any of us can do."

"Thanks, Father.

Mass went on as scheduled, and as announcements were being made, Josh got up and was standing only a couple feet from the podium. Father Rick introduced Josh.

"Folks, we have a young man here, Josh Fitzgerald, who spent quite a bit of time in the homeless shelter. I think he has a real good idea but, I'll let him tell you about."

Josh began. Inside his stomach was doing flip flops; outside he was a cool, confident, teenage boy.

"Hi. Darn, the paper says I'm supposed to say I'm Josh Fitzgerald. But Father already told you that.  I'll say it anyway. (Light chuckles from the congregation.) I'm Josh Fitzgerald. My grandma used to live over on 18th Av. We always came to this church.  Some of you may know her, Maggie Fitzgerald, she did a lot of volunteer work. Well, she made a bad loan and lost her house. So, she and I had been homeless for the past 2 years. Grandma died just before Christmas and I'm sure some of you came to her funeral mass. Another bunch of people came to her funeral; people from the homeless shelter; good people who because of one thing or another were going through hard times, just like me and grandma. If you remember the day, it was very cold, 10 degrees and snowy. There was about one hundred of them came to say good bye to grandma. They all couldn't fit on the bus, so, many of them walked. They walked in flimsy coats and sneakers instead of boots. These good people came in spite of the weather, risking frost-bite and sickness to say goodbye, to one of their own. They told me it was the least they could do. Now, a lot of folks say bad things about the homeless folks. They are lazy; they are thieves; they are no good because they have no homes, no jobs. I guess that's true for a few but most are like my grandma who got a bad loan or lost their job.

I have a friend from the shelter; his name is Billy and he is 15 years old and he is homeless. His dad was a marine and died over in Iraq. His mom went through some hard times, too. But now she is taking a computer course so she can get a job that will pay enough for her to get a place for her and Billy. She also works at McDonalds, so she has money to get food for herself and Billy. New Year’s Eve she had a chance to work and get paid double time. It was a choice of either getting extra money or sleeping in the shelter. Needing the money; she chose work. When the snow hit and pretty much canceled New Year's Eve, she had no place to go and to make it worse, someone stole the light spring coat she had. Billy was staying with me and Pops so, we went out to get her. She was near froze when we got her. Another few minutes she would have fallen and froze to death.

I am telling you all this because I have an idea that can help. It's not earth shattering, but it would be very useful. I want to make sure that at the very least, all these people can have a warm winter coat. You probably don’t know they have to be out of the shelter by 9:00 in the morning and not allowed back until 6:00 at night. That's a long time to be on the street, in a flimsy spring coat, if they even have that. Being a shelter kid, I was surprised to find out that there are a lot of people that have more than one winter coat. Pops told me that. He said they get a new coat and the old one often gets left in the closet. So, I'm asking you to find that old coat in your closet and bring it to the church and we'll bring them down to the shelter. Style doesn't matter, neither does missing a button or something like that. The important thing is that it is warm.

I'm only 14 years old so, I don't know a whole lot about religion or the bible. But I learned a tiny bit from a sign that Luke, he's the shelter director, has hanging in his office.

It reads "THERE BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD, GO I"

Another thing I learned was at Christmas. I was so lucky to be with Pops’ family. Pops is Luke's father and the best foster grandpa ever, any way, they gave me a bunch of neat stuff and I felt bad that I had nothing to give them back. Grandma said you are always supposed to repay a kindness in kind. Liz, Pops’ daughter whispered to me that it is better to give than receive so, I was really doing them a favor.

So that's about all I got to say. Except if by the grace of God, you are lucky enough to have that old coat in your closet and you think it's better to give than keep it. Thank you so much for listening to me, and thank you, Father Rick, for giving me the opportunity."

Josh had given his talk. He showed confidence; for sure he didn't rush it. He had looked around the congregation person by person; looking directly into their eyes trying to find that one friendly face, but they all looked friendly to him.

Father Rick stood up and clapped, the entire congregation joined him. Josh's little talk got a standing ovation. He just kind of hung his head a little. It was the same way he hung his head when he made the winning baskets years ago.

To be continued...

Posted: 11/05/2021