She, a twenty-year-old recent college grad. When he has a haircut you can see because you're generally staring down at him that even his head is covered in tatoos.
Several days later, she brought documents attesting to her claims, and it all seemed to check out. He haunts the back lanes and narrow side streets in a constant search through garbage looking for tossed-out syringes that may have the remains of drugs in them or any sort of pill that may give him a high or just alter his metabolism.
One evening, when I was sitting outside a restaurant watching as she unctuously approached couples, she spied me and tried her technique on me. I started to tell him again, but he just wanted to hear the initials. Others passed by, pretended indifference. Coco had been severely traumatised by seeing her shooting up. He wears a scruffy tweed jacket and baggy trousers in summer and adds a jacket in winter. She approaches the man, never the woman, and asks for money in as servile a voice as possible. Street children are found almost everywhere in all communities. He haunts the back lanes and narrow side streets in a constant search through garbage looking for tossed-out syringes that may have the remains of drugs in them or any sort of pill that may give him a high or just alter his metabolism. This time, it was a tall black man wearing an ill-fitting suit and tie, like thrift-shop formalwear. Immediately he gazed at his chest only to find nothing like that.On July 6,we were told we had six hours to get out. Everyone in the area knows him by name, and when they return from a holiday or business trip he knows exactly how long they've been away. One night I gave him twenty cents.
The rest of the day, I wrestled with my thoughts, my mind feverish with indecision: Should I say something? I threw my blankie, my Gameboy and my Build-A-Bear into a small duffle bag.
The children are at times made to starve and are given worn out clothes to wear. The first time I saw him in a euphoric mood was in the video shop across the road. He sits on his stool like a wizened imp with a tic in one rigid finger until he has run out of money, then he quietly slips out of the hotel, leaving the bar staff to wipe down his seat with disinfectant. They slump in alcoves or on the doorsteps of apartment blocks and shops, their faces looking like giant bruises, holding out trembling hands to ask for money, giving a hideously bad performance as someone who needs enough to get back a train to the most distant suburb they can think of. The last twenty or so years have seen a growing influx of madmen into the area. At the recent Kings Cross dog show, held in the Fitzroy Gardens, Coco won a trophy by dancing, doing high-fives and begging. He has staked a claim a few metres from my apartment, strategically placed between the liquor shop and the junction of streets and roads that gives Kings Cross its name. I asked him if he was ever beaten up. We need to talk. He looked up at me, smiling brightly. Please, any amount will help. I've seen people throw coins at him from a distance as if they're afraid of catching a virus, but once he has made enough he can indulge his one passion besides drugs — gambling. The men hardly ever fail to give her money.After an hour, I stood up.