JC: Harry and Sally
Chapter 2
By
Lazlo Zalezac
Copyright (C) Lazlo Zalezac, 2004

Sally moved closer to Harry as they walked down the city street. 
He walked using his staff like a walking stick. A dog wandered 
down the street in front of them, stopping to mark its territory on 
signposts, fire hydrants, and corners of buildings. The people in the 
street looked even creepier to her than the people at the homeless 
hotel. They looked at her with suspicion. 

She'd seen lots of movies that claimed to show the ugly side of life, 
but the picture they presented paled in comparison to the real thing. 
Ill fitting clothes, dirty looking people, the surrounding filth, and 
horrible language beat on her soul. The people were so hard that it 
was impossible to feel empathy for them.

Happy Harry moved through the people in a slow comfortable 
pace. His smile and kind words evoked smiles everywhere that he 
went. He flirted outrageously with old ladies, going so far as 
telling one that if she weren't married he'd bed her in a minute. 
Sally had watched in shock as the woman preened and stood up 
straighter. Harry had winked and continued his way down the 
street.

Across the street were a couple of men pushing shopping carts 
filled with aluminum cans. One of the men stopped by a trashcan 
and dug through it, adding a couple of cans to his cart. When he 
was done, he wiped his nose with the back of his hand. Sally 
shivered in disgust at the idea that he had just dug through a trash 
can and then touched his face with the same hand. 

She had to hurry to catch up to Harry when he started to cross the 
street to where the men with the shopping carts were hard at work 
digging through trashcans. She frowned when she realized where 
he was heading. One of the men looked up and shouted, "Hey, 
Happy Harry. How are you doing?"

"I'm doing fine. I see you've got quite a haul today," remarked 
Harry as he glanced over at the cart.

"I'll get enough for an all-you-can place," replied the man as he 
scratched the back of his neck. 

Sally looked at the man and saw that he had some kind of skin 
disease. Major areas of his arms had skin sloughing off. She 
wondered if he had leprosy. Seeing where Sally was looking, 
Harry asked, "Have you been to the Fusion Foundation Clinic?"

"Yeah, they gave me a tube of cream to put on my arms. I've been 
doing it for a week, but it doesn't seem to be helping any," 
answered the man. He rubbed his arms and flakes of skin drifted 
away in the breeze. 

A shiver of disgust crept up her spin and Sally made sure that she 
was upwind of him. She didn't know if what he had was 
contagious, but she wasn't going to risk it. She watched as Harry 
talked to the men for a good ten minutes about the price of cans, 
where they were staying, and how others were doing.

When Harry finally left, she fell into step beside him. Looking 
back at the two men, she asked, "Why spend so much time with 
them?"

"They're working rather than begging. I just check with them 
occasionally to make sure that everything is going okay in their 
lives," he answered as he glanced over in her direction. He added, 
"Simple health problems turn deadly when you live out on the 
street. A simple flu can kill you. There are lots of things to make 
you sick out here. Skin diseases, hepatitis, pneumonia, and 
exposure to chemicals are everywhere."

"His arms looked horrible," remarked Sally.

"Princess, lots of things look horrible, but aren't. That's a simple 
psoriasis, looks ugly but it's not dangerous.  It's the ones that don't 
look that bad that are dangerous."

She stopped to look at him while wondering what he meant by that 
comment. She raced to catch up hoping that he would explain his 
comment, but he was busy waving to other folks. She looked down 
the street and saw a woman pushing a shopping cart filled with 
clothes, bags, and other stuff that she couldn't make out. 

Harry stopped at an alley and, with a smile, said, "Come with me."

She followed him down the alley amazed at how filthy it was. The 
buildings on each side of the alley seemed to reach up to the sky. 
They made it a dark forbidding place even in the afternoon. When 
they walked past a restaurant, her stomach threatened to lose the 
lunch that she had eaten an hour earlier. The odor was 
overpowering.

She screamed when a rat crossed the alley in front of them. In a 
tone meant to reassure her, Harry said, "Don't worry. They won't 
bite a person that is awake unless they are rabid. They do bite 
when you sleep though."

"God, that's gross!"

"If you ever just look at one, they are kind of cute. Of course, stay 
away from them. They have diseases and can be quite vicious." 
Harry walked along ignoring the rat that had backed up against the 
wall and glared at them.

Sally moved even closer to Harry afraid of running across other 
rats in the alley. She screamed when a cat burst out from behind a 
dumpster and nearly climbed onto Harry. He laughed at her 
nervousness and said, "It's just an alley cat."

He led her to the rear of an abandoned warehouse. The red bricks 
were crumbling, windows were broken, and the cement steps up to 
the loading platform were cracked. The door, missing a hinge, was 
stuck open. They entered into a large room that must have been 
part of a storage area. Scattered across the floor were old clothes, 
newspapers, and blankets. Near the center of the room was a five-
gallon metal paint can that was surrounded by milk crates and 
wood boxes. There was even a metal lawn chair that had seen 
better days. She asked, "What is this place?"

Harry didn't answer immediately as he looked in one of the rooms 
off to the side. The wall of the room had glass windows 
overlooking the large area, but the windows were covered with 
newspapers rendering them useless. The room next to it had the 
windows broken out. He said, "Some street people have taken over 
the building. I'm here to see one of the residents, but she's not here 
yet."

He sat down on the floor and leaned against the wall, prepared to 
stay there for an hour. She looked over at the boxes in the center of 
the room and asked, "Why aren't you sitting over there?"

"I don't know who owns them. Some people react violently when 
you use their property," replied Harry looking over at her hoping 
that she was smart enough to know better than try to convince him 
that they could use them anyway. 

She looked at the boxes, crates, and chair wondering who would 
possibly react violently to someone sitting on them. She asked, 
"Why would they get upset?"

Harry laughed at the comment satisfied that she was at least 
curious about it rather than denying its existence. Shaking his head, 
he knew that she hadn't yet come to grips with the world that she 
had entered. Taking a deep breath, he answered, "They'd get upset 
because that crate, box, or chair is all they have."

Amazed that someone would consider a box taken out of the trash 
as a possession, she said, "That's so sad."

Trying to make a point, he replied, "You don't even have that 
much."

She was about to say that she had lots of stuff at home, but realized 
that she left home behind. What would she take from home if she 
could only have what she could carry? It was a sobering thought. 
She didn't even have a purse, having lost it during her second day 
on the streets. Just thinking about its loss, brought back the 
memory of her anger on discovering that it had been stolen. 
Sighing, she said, "You're right."

Leaning back so that the wall supported his back, Happy Harry 
started singing a song. Each line was delivered in the same rhythm 
punctuated by a heavy 'huh.' Sally listened to the song wondering 
when he was going to get to the end, but it just kept going. 
Curious, she asked, "What are you singing?"

Harry stopped singing and answered, "It's an old Gandy Dancer 
work song."

"I have no idea what that means."

To while away the time, Harry talked about the days when men 
called Gandy Dancers performed maintenance of the railroad 
tracks. Their job was to straighten tracks, keep them the proper 
distance apart, and replace the railroad ties that were rotting. The 
men would sing songs to make the time go by faster and to 
coordinate their work. Eight to fourteen black men often made up a 
team and were watched over by a white foreman. One of the 
workers would take the position of caller and lead the others in 
song. 

Harry told about how he had loved watching them at work when he 
was a kid. The huge strong men moving rails with long levers 
while singing was an amazing sight. Their movements gave the 
impression that the men were performing an intricate dance. As far 
as Harry was concerned, it was a sad day when the Gandy Dancers 
were replaced by machines in the 60s. 

Harry said, "There used to be lots of work songs. Songs to 
straighten track, songs to break rock, and songs to drive steel. The 
Gandy Dancers were the last of the songsters."

Sally thought about it, but didn't understand the significance.

After a moment of silence, Harry said, "Something important died 
that day. That was the day when work and song became separated. 
Because of that separation, people working together became 
isolated from each other. Each person is working in his or her own 
little world. Life is a little sadder today than it was then."

"Wow, I never thought of people working to music," replied Sally. 
She tried to imagine people in an office working to music, but 
there wasn't a song appropriate for an office place. She realized 
that there weren't any jobs left today in which teamwork required 
such precise synchronization. 

Harry sat back and started to sing another song. He taught her the 
words so that she could sing the counterpart. Together they sang 
the song through twice before there was the sound of someone 
moving up the stairs of the old building. The pair stopped singing 
waiting for the person to show up.

Harry stood when the bag lady came into the room. Surprised to 
see him standing, Sally stood as well wondering what was going 
on. She examined the woman, taking in the weathered face, worn 
clothes, and lack of makeup. There was a dull look to the skin that 
suggested dirt, but it wasn't obvious. It was impossible to imagine 
the woman living in the suburbs.

The woman made her way over to Harry and said, "Well, Harry. 
It's about time you came to visit me."

"Lucy, wild horses couldn't keep me away once I heard you were 
back," replied the Druid with a smile as he hugged her.

The woman hugged Harry back and then broke away to glance in 
the direction of Sally. Her smile turned into a frown as she asked, 
"Who's the girl?"

"Lucy, I'd like you to meet Sally. Sally, this is the Lady Lucy."

Sally nodded her head wondering what the relationship was 
between Harry and Lucy. Lucy wasn't satisfied with his answer 
and asked, "So who is she?"

"A runaway girl," answered Harry. He looked over at Sally and 
then said, "I'm showing her the life of the homeless and then I'll 
show her the life of a whore. She'll have to decide which one she'll 
follow, but at least she'll have the facts."

Smiling at Harry, Lucy shook her head and said, "You've become 
too serious since you became a Druid."

Harry looked at Lucy and put an arm around her. With a smile, he 
said, "Not so serious that I won't spend some time with the first 
lady of the streets."

"You know what I like to hear," Sally said as she pushed her cart 
into the room and waited for Harry. Her hands moved up to 
remove a layer of clothes while waiting for Harry to join her in the 
room.

Harry turned to Sally and said, "Knock on the door if anyone 
comes in."

She nodded, not understanding what was happening. Harry went 
into the room and closed the door behind him. She sat down on the 
floor, her back to the wall. Leaning her head back so that it was 
resting on the wall, she found that she could hear sounds inside the 
room. 

Time passed slowly. After about a half an hour, she realized the 
noises coming through the wall were those of passion. Curious, she 
stood up and looked at the window. There was a small hole in the 
newspaper that she could see through. She put her eye to the hole 
and looked into the room. Light filtered through a window in that 
room so that she could see what was going on inside. 

She gasped as she realized that Harry was having sex with Lucy. 
From her vantage point, all she could see was his ass, with balls 
pulled up tight, moving up and down. His cock was buried in the 
spread open pussy. Lucy had her legs spread as wide as was 
humanly possible and her arms were grasped around Harry's back. 
Sally stared at the sight feeling guilty at peeping, disgust at the fact 
that they were engaging in that act in such horrid surroundings, and 
turned on at the same time. 

Her hand snaked between her legs, without her conscious will 
directing it. She started to rub herself and then realized what she 
was doing. She pulled her hand away and sat down on the floor 
thinking about what she had seen. It had never occurred to her that 
homeless folks might have a sex life. Why had Harry insisted that 
she come with him? Was it so that she could see this? She didn't 
know and that bothered her.

Staring at the empty room slowly got on her nerves. There was a 
thin layer of dirt on everything. A number of windows were broken 
and a few of those were covered with plywood.  The intact 
windows were so dirty that it was impossible to make out what was 
on the other side of them. The odor of human waste hung in the air. 
It was hard to distinguish trash from prized possessions. 

It seemed like forever before the door of the room opened. Harry 
stuck his head out of the door and called, "Come on in, Princess."

Hating the fact that everyone called her Princess, she wanted to 
argue. Curiosity won out. Sally stood and entered the room finding 
Lucy sitting on the floor near where she had been when Harry had 
been having sex with her. Her face colored at the reminder of what 
she had seen. The scent of sex hung heavily in the air. 

Lucy noticed the blush and said, "A woman has her needs, even a 
bag lady like myself."

"I guess," replied Sally. She waved a hand around to point out the 
surroundings and asked, "Here?"

"Did you expect us to rent a room at the Ritz?" asked Harry with a 
twinkle in his eye. 

Laughing wildly, Lucy managed to say, "Like that's ever gonna 
happen."

"Did I say something stupid," asked Sally wondering why they 
were laughing at her.

Harry sat down on the ground next to Lucy and placed an arm 
around her. Leaning against the Druid, Lucy said, "This is as nice a 
place for sex as anywhere else and better than most. We've got 
alleyways, but there just ain't much privacy there. 'sides, they're 
even dirtier than here."

They had walked past cheap hotels that offered rooms for five 
dollars a day. It seemed to her that they could afford to spend five 
dollars on room. She asked, "What about the cheap hotels that we 
passed on the way here?"

Harry laughed and said, "Half of the rooms don't even have doors. 
It's too dangerous for women to go into them. Believe it or not, this 
is a palace compared to a lot of places where people live."

It was a depressing thought. This place didn't even seem as nice as 
the homeless hotel that Harry operated. She asked, "So why don't 
people stay at your place? That seems a lot nicer than here."

Lucy answered, "His place is nicer than here, but it doesn't have 
the same kind of privacy. Beside, I couldn't stay in one place all of 
the time. Most folks go to stay there when they really need a place 
to stay while recovering from an illness or if the weather is really 
bad. The comforts are minimal, but it is safe and warm. Everyone 
gets checked on, so if you're sick that's good."

Harry said, "We have some people that come there to eat dinner. 
They work during the afternoon washing sleeping areas with 
bleach and water, eat dinner, and then leave to sleep elsewhere."

"Why wouldn't they sleep there, too?"

"We're dealing with people that move outside the bounds of 
society. Some are mentally ill and others are just loners. Each one 
is an individual and proud of their individuality. If you take them 
out of the street and put them in a nice house in a good 
neighborhood with a paying job, they'll end up on the street within 
a month." Harry was quiet for a moment as he thought about it. 
Finally, he said, "Can't force them to change and I wouldn't do it if 
I could. We can only help people in a way that they can accept."

Sally was silent as she considered what he had said. It was hard for 
her to believe that there were people that liked being homeless and 
preferred that lifestyle. Had she decided that she would prefer to be 
homeless over her previous life at home with her parents? No, 
she'd head home before that happened. She asked, "So what are 
you doing?"

"I'm providing a safe haven for people that don't have one," 
answered Harry. 

Harry and Lucy talked while Sally leaned against the wall thinking 
about what she was going to do. It was weird, but he hadn't 
suggested that she should call her parents and go home. She 
wondered what he was trying to achieve by hauling her around the 
area. Was it that he was letting her see what kind of future she was 
facing if she stayed? If that was his plan, she was sure that if she 
went home, she'd stay there. 

Harry roused her out of her thoughts when he touched her 
shoulder. She stood and followed him out of the building 
wondering where he was going. The alley was much darker than it 
had been earlier. Harry's staff made a clicking sound as the end 
contacted the concrete. 

At the end of the alley, he turned to the left so that he was heading 
deeper into the slum. Sally made sure that she stayed close to him. 
They hadn't gone far when a well-dressed black man wearing a 
leather coat stepped in front of Harry. There was a dull look to his 
eyes, his mouth was set, and he posed aggressively. With a slight 
upward tilt of his head, he asked, "What are you doing down here, 
Mr. Druid Man?"

Harry stopped a foot away from the man, well within his personal 
space, and replied, "I'm keeping my people safe from creeps like 
you."

"You keep away from my ho's."

"I don't want anything to do with your ho's. What would I want 
with your ass-hole or pie-hole?" replied Harry. His eyes narrowed 
as he stared in the eyes of the black man.

"Don't disrespect me by acting stupid. You leave my bitches 
alone," said the man in a cold even voice. It carried a greater threat 
than if he had raised his voice.

"The young ladies around here do not belong to you. I'll talk to 
anyone I want and will help anyone that asks for help," replied 
Harry. His voice was calm and collected.

"Don't fuck with me Druid. I'll bury you," spat the black man.

Harry grinned and replied, "Ask the Mafia what happens when you 
fuck with a Druid."

"There's no Mafia left, fool."

"Exactly," replied Harry with a smile as he pushed the man out of 
his way. Sally stuck close to Harry afraid of the black man and 
what he would do. 

The man turned and stared at Harry feeling a rage building within 
him. Last month the Druid had taken four of his whores off the 
street and into the Fusion Foundation. That had cost him a fortune, 
at least five hundred a night. There was no way that he would let 
that Druid cost him more money. Looking at the little white girl 
with Harry, he thought she'd make an excellent addition to his 
stable.

Sally whispered, "He looked dangerous."

"He is dangerous. You saw him when he was angry. If he was 
trying to get you into his stable of prostitutes, he'd have been the 
most charming man you'd ever met," replied Harry as he looked 
over at her. 

They came to another alley and Harry led her into it. There was a 
stairwell down into the basement of one of the buildings. Sally 
looked down into it and saw a woman on her knees giving a 
blowjob to a disgusting fat man. The woman was making moaning 
sounds as if she was enjoying the act.

Harry pulled Sally on down the alley and said, "We'll wait here."

"Did you see what they were doing?" asked Sally incredulous at 
what she had witnessed.

"She was making twenty dollars giving the guy a blowjob," 
answered Harry in a matter of fact voice. 

That woman was on her knees for twenty dollars? She couldn't 
believe that a woman would do that for twenty dollars.  Her voice 
rose as she said, "She's gotta be crazy."

"She'll give twenty of them a night and only get to keep a part of 
the money she earns. That guy back there will take most of it."

Sally fumed as she thought about it. The young woman was the 
one doing all the work and that guy thought he deserved most of it. 
It was outrageous. She was ready to tell Harry that, when he held a 
finger to his lips in the universal gesture to be quiet. She looked at 
the end of the alley and saw the man climbing out of the stairwell. 
When the man left the alley, Harry headed towards the stairwell. 
Sally looked up in the air thinking that he was going to get a 
blowjob.

The woman came out of the stairwell and saw Harry. She smiled as 
she said, "Hey Harry. You come down here for one of my blow 
jobs?"

"Hello Crystal. You know better than that. I like my women a little 
more mature than you," answered Harry.

Sally looked at Harry and then at the young woman. She put the 
woman at about twenty and was shocked when Crystal said, "Shit, 
I'm almost sixteen."

"I like my women of legal age," replied Harry without cracking a 
smile. 

"If a creep like that last guy doesn't mind, why should a nice guy 
like you?" asked Crystal. She had offered to give Harry a blowjob 
several times, but he always refused even when she told him it 
would be free.

"That's why I'm a nice guy," answered Harry with a wink.

Crystal faltered and then asked, "Were you serious that you could 
get me out of here?"

"Very serious," replied Harry as Sally wondered what was going 
on. 

"What do I need to do?" Crystal was worried that her pimp would 
discover them leaving. 

"Just come with me."

"He'll catch us." There was real fear in her voice.

"Doesn't matter," replied Harry. In a very soothing tone of voice, 
he said, "He can't stop me from taking you to a place of safety. He 
isn't strong enough or mean enough."

Crystal folded her arms across her chest and bounced in place. She 
was frowning as she said, "You don't know Charlie, he's crazy."

"I know him and thousands like him," answered Harry with a sigh. 
It was the truth. He did know thousands just like Charlie. Men that 
hung around bus stations waiting for young female runaways to 
leave the station. They went in to approach the girl by talking 
about how rough the poor girl had it at home and how if she was 
his girl, he'd show her how a lady was supposed to be treated. For 
the next day or two, she'd be his favorite girl. That meant eating 
out, buying clothes, and taking her to her first bar. Then he'd put 
her to work on the street. 

Sally suggested, "Don't you think we should get away from here?"

Happy Harry smiled and said, "Follow me ladies."

Sally kept up with Harry, not wanting to leave his side for even a 
moment. Crystal was a little slower, but she finally ran a few steps 
to catch up. At the end of the alley, a black Cadillac pulled up in 
front of them. On seeing it, Crystal cried, "Oh my God."

Sally started to feel afraid when Charlie stepped out of the 
passenger seat of the car. Her fear grew when three other men got 
out of the other three doors. Each of the men took a moment to 
make sure their jackets hung smooth as if to say that it was 
important to look good before getting into a fight. Harry shifted his 
grip on the staff so that it hung parallel to the ground. 

Charlie said, "I see you brought me a nice little brown haired 
morsel to add to my stable."

"You need to get your glasses fixed because you're seeing things 
that ain't there," replied Harry. 

One of the other men said, "He's funny."

Harry lifted his left hand and held the fingers out at the men. He 
stood in place waiting for the four men to do something. Sally was 
so scared that she grabbed the arm of Crystal and, in a terrified 
whisper, asked, "What's happening?"

Crystal answered, "They're gonna beat the shit out of him and then 
they are going to beat the shit out of me. I hate to think of what 
he'll do to you."

The words sent a chill down her spine as she realized that she was 
going to get gang rapped by the four men that night. She wanted to 
hit Harry for telling her to come with him. She backed up ready to 
run and looked down the alley to see if the way was clear. She 
heard Charlie say, "Now you die, mother fucker."

When she turned back to see what was happening, she was 
shocked. Harry was still standing in the same spot, but two of the 
men were on the ground clutching their throats. Charlie was staring 
at Harry as though wondering what happened. The other guy still 
standing said, "What the fuck!"

The other man moved to reach inside his coat. Harry wiggled his 
fingers and the man then dropped to the ground as if struck by 
lightening. The man on the ground clutched his throat as he tried to 
breathe. Harry's eyes had never left Charlie's eyes and he continued 
to watch Charlie as he said, "You better get on that cell phone you 
carry in your right pocket and call 911 before your friends die. 
Reach in the wrong pocket and you all die."

"What the fuck did you do to them?" asked Charlie confused. He 
swore the guy had never moved except for a small waving of his 
fingers of his left hand. He didn't believe in magic, but this guy 
seemed to have cast a spell on the other three.

"Crushed their windpipes," answered Harry. "Better get on the 
phone."

Charlie went for his gun rather than the cell phone. Before he had 
even grasped the gun, he had collapsed to the ground. Harry bent 
down and reached in the right pocket. Removing a cell phone, he 
opened it and dialed 911. After a minute of discussion, he closed 
the cell phone and turned to the two girls. Sally was staring at him 
in shock. Crystal was on the ground crying. It was impossible to 
tell if it because she felt bad for Charlie or from relief.

"I guess they didn't notice the staff in my hand," said Harry as he 
held up the staff. It was very thin. He bent down and examined the 
four men on the ground trying to decide if he was going to have to 
perform an emergency tracheostomy. The first guy was turning 
blue. Pulling out a knife, he cut a slit in the guy's throat and 
inserted a short section of tube that he had taken from his pocket. It 
was unnecessary for him to repeat the process with the other three. 
He was standing over the four men when the police car pulled up. 

Officer Hogan stepped out of the patrol car to join Harry while his 
partner bent down examining the men on the ground. Looking over 
the four men and seeing the tube stuck out of one of the throats, he 
asked, "What happened?"

"They threatened to kill me and then went for their guns." Harry 
held up his left hand and wiggled his fingers as he said, "I cast a 
spell on them. Then I had to perform first aid."

"You sucker punched them with your staff and had to keep them 
alive so that you wouldn't be charged with manslaughter," replied 
the cop. He looked down as his partner pulled out guns from under 
their coats. He asked, "Serial numbers?"

"Filed off."

Sally watched as a number of women came across the street and 
joined Crystal. They were all dressed in outfits that were equally 
revealing. It was weird standing there surround by girls her age 
knowing that they were prostitutes. They should have been in 
school trying out to be cheerleaders, not on their knees sucking 
cocks in an alley or the front seat of a car. 

She listened as two of the girls discussed a customer that one of 
them had that evening. She cringed as she heard the one say, "He 
was a real freak. He wanted me to grab his ball sack and pull as 
hard as I could while I was sucking him off. Shit I thought I was 
gonna pull it off, but he kept telling to pull harder."

The other girl replied, "Hey, it's better to have them begging you to 
hurt them than for them to want to hurt you."

Sally asked, "Are you ever going to be able to date a guy?"

All of the women were silent as they considered the question. After 
the silence had drug on too long, one of them said, "Honey, a date 
is a hundred dollars."

The next morning it was a very changed Sally that called home, 
using the cell phone that Harry produced from his pocket, and 
asked her father if he would pick her up. When he said that he 
would come right down, she had surprised herself and her father by 
telling him to take his time. 

After finishing the call, she grabbed a plastic bag and started to 
pick up trash in the field by the homeless hotel. It was a never-
ending battle and one that would keep the homeless earning 
breakfast for years to come. People threw trash off the bridge all 
day long and a person or two would pick it up in the morning. 

When the trash bag was full, she threw it in the dumpster and 
washed her hands. By the time she had finished, Harry had opened 
the door on the Roach Coach. Joining the other homeless people, 
she stood in line to get a donut and coffee. It wasn't much, but she 
appreciated getting it. Sitting down on one of the cinderblocks, Tin 
Tom asked, "You leaving today?"

"Ya, my daddy is coming to pick me up," answered Sally.

Tin Tom was silent for a while as he ate his donut and drank his 
coffee. Not looking at her, he said, "Maybe you'll go to college and 
study ways to help the mentally ill get off the streets. Unlike Harry 
and me, they don't really want to be homeless."

"I will," she replied. She saw her father's car coming down the 
road. She finished her donut and drank her coffee. Turning to the 
Roach Coach, she saw that Harry was getting out of the back. She 
said, "My daddy is here. I'm gonna have to go."

"Remember us, Princess."

Her father got out of the car and looked around at the Homeless 
Hotel. Some of the late risers were only now crawling out of the 
sections of sewer pipes. The guy with no teeth was rinsing his 
dentures out under the water tap. He gave Sally a toothless grin 
and then leaned back as he laughed. Sally pulled her lips over her 
teeth and gave him a toothless grin in return. 

She looked over at her father noticing that he had witnessed the 
exchange. It was easy to see that he was angered by the 
surroundings in which he had found his daughter. His anger abated 
when he saw the Druid approaching him with a smile on his face. 
Sally beat Harry to her father's side and apologized, "Hello, Daddy. 
I'm sorry that I left home."

In a voice that combined anger, worry, relief, and concern, her 
father said, "You have no idea …"

Harry interrupted the lecture when he said, "She's learned some 
important lessons the last few days. Some lessons in life don't need 
to be taught twice. Let her be."

Sally smiled as her father stared at the man who had just told him 
to drop the lecture. The robe and the medallion around his neck 
identified him as a Druid. Then he realized that he had no idea 
what had happened over the past five days. Who knew what she 
learned or what she had been through? Instead of pursuing the 
topic, he dropped it. He replied, "You're probably right."

Leaning over to the Druid, she gave him a hug and a kiss on the 
cheek. Stepping back to her father's side, Sally said, "See you 
around, Happy Harry."

"Take care, Princess."

Sally got into the car and waited for her father. He took a minute to 
look around at his surroundings before he returned to the car. Not 
knowing what to say, he said nothing as he turned on the car. 
Turning the wheel, he said, "We'll talk when you're ready to talk."

As he drove out of the homeless hotel, Sally asked, "Do you know 
what a Gandy Dancer is?"