The Days :: essays research papers

It all happened so fast; it felt like a dream. I wish I could tell everybody my story but no one is listening now. Yeah, that was the best: the dreams we had. Nothing mattered except for those otherworldly dreams. Every day, Louie and I would wake up, whether it be in a high school boiler room or a urine-soaked alley, and talk about what we dreamt. He used to always have dreams with that Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters in them. We talked about it for a while and came to the conclusion that Louie probably just wanted to sleep on a pillow. A long time ago I had a dream that Louie and I were rabid monsters and we beat each other into bloody pulps. We had a good laugh about that one. That's what kept us going day after day: dreams. Well, dreams and our "business partnership." See, we didn't hobble up to you like sick dogs and beg you for a nickel or a cigarette. We took whatever the hell you had on you. We were so good at it, too. It was all about picking the right people at the right time. Friday nights, we used to drink a 12-pack and approach people in a raging frenzy using a toy squirtgun as a concealed weapon. It was hilarious. Don't get me wrong, though: being nineteen and homeless wasn't "fun." Checking 45 year old women's pockets for money was the closest I had been to getting some in three years. I looked like the garbage that I slept in. The only time I showered was when Louie and I could afford to rent a cheap hotel room for the night. But above all, Louie and I hated being cold. Those biting Detroit winters used to suck the life out of us and not give it back until April. The date and time didn't matter in the winter; all that mattered was that you were cold. Our dreams really did keep us alive at those times. Your mind is all you've got when the rest of your limbs are numb with frostbite and hunger pulsates through your body. Louie was such a great guy. I just wish I could go back down there and talk to him. We could talk about nothing for hours upon hours. Louie would make me forget that I hadn't eaten in two days. In February, we would get wasted in parking structures and take turns smac king each other across the face until the pain and laughter made the cold go away.