Nasty nuns.
I have never been what one would call a model citizen, nor have I been the best son, brother, uncle or any other noun that you might think of. Instead I made a poor life choice and decided that I would do better following the path of booze, drugs and petty crime.
The good things that I have done in my life are few and far between, while the bad things that I have grossly outweigh almost anything else. In retrospect the person that I hurt the most, besides my parents, was me. My parents were not loving, nurturing people that always provided for me and my two sisters. They looked out for themselves first. We did live a modest life, in a modest home and we learned early on in our lives, what the true value of hard work and money was all about. My sisters learned, I didn't. Overall what should have been a perfect foundation to set yourself up with a good life, wasn't. So, after graduation, I choose not to attend college and went down the road of laziness and fun. This lasted for about 18 months, until my parents finally tired of my hijinks and sent me packing.
So, as of that moment there I sat, jobless, homeless and hungry, all at the ripe old age of 22 years old.
When you feel like you've hit the lowest of the low, you will resort to almost anything to get by. By far the easiest method of quick moneymaking is to beg. Usually, the humiliation of recognizing a face in the crowd while you're begging for money, would be enough for anyone to clean-up and go straight. Not for me, it only made me want it more, so that you can buy a pint of whatever the cheapest bottle of booze might be. I had no problem calling out to the passersby and calling them by name, pointing out that I was down on my luck and in need of a few bucks. Some would oblige, others ran away, terrified.
Begging as we see it on the streets is an art form, some of us have the ability to look pathetic enough to earn what it takes to get by, others lose the knack and turn to crime. I fell into that category. I had lost the knack. The problem with turning to crime when you are a down and out, is that you are not using common sense. You're either too stoned or too drunk to rationalize a good plan and that was my downfall.
Early on in my homelessness, I was hungry and semi-sober, so I came up with good ideas on how to make money by stealing the things that I knew I could pawn or sell. As I fell deeper into my hole, good plans eluded me and drunk me just wanted to be drunker.
When I awoke from my drunken stupor, I was surrounded by the smell of urine and vomit, but I was indoors which was good. That indoors, was jail, and that as always, was bad.
When the bailiff called my name, I walked to the front of the holding cell and met Mr. Evans, my state appointed attorney. My suit filled me in on the details as to why I had been incarcerated. Apparently, drunk me came up with the brilliant plan to run past an old lady ringing a bell for the Salvation Army and steal her little plastic ball full of cash. While that might not seem like a bad idea, doing it while wearing three layers of clothes to stay warm and trying to run was. I got caught less than 50 yards from the scene of the crime and took a beating from a couple of over-zealous goons.
My good buddy Mr. Evans asked me how I intended to plea. Really? I don't even remember a committing a crime, so I told him that he could plead to whatever the fuck he wanted. So, in a court room full of losers just like myself, I found myself standing up in front of the judge, covered in dried blood, stinking like piss and just stinking in general, my state appointed attorney said, "We would like to enter a plea of guilty, your honor." I had officially hit rock fucking bottom.
After spending 30 days in one of Detroit's finer general lock up's, I was released to a half-way house. This particular half-way house was in the backroom portion of a church that also doubled as a soup kitchen. It wasn't much, but it would be home for the next 60 days or I'd end up back it lock-up for the remainder of my 120 days sentence.
When I showed up at St Michael's with my escort of 2 state correctional officers, it was almost like being transferred from one cage to another. The whole back of the church was locked down with bars over the windows and a secondary entry cage around the door. The clanging of the metal bars and eeriness of the church sent a shiver down my spine.
When we entered, a big old iron maiden, Sister Mary Margaret introduced herself to the officers and asked, "Does this one have a name?" "Yeah Sister, this fine upstanding young gentleman is Peter Miller, he will be a guest at St Mike's for the next 60 days or less. If he causes you any trouble what-so-ever, you just call, and we'll pick this bag of bones up. Here's his folder and paperwork. Hopefully you can clean him up."
Clean me up? Good fucking luck with that. I could only imagine what I looked like, a rubby that been in detox for the last thirty days without a shower or a shave. Dirty, smelly and dying for a drink or an oxy. My clothes could probably stand up and walk on their own.
The officers unshackled my wrists and ankles and departed, leaving me behind with my new guardian. One of the younger nuns had me follow her into the sleeping area, "Pick a cot Brother Miller, it will be yours for the next little while. There is no sleeping during the day, understood." I just nodded and picked a cot that smelled just slightly better than I did.
After a supper of bread and stew, three of us newbies were taken into the library area and given full instructions of the do's and don'ts of St Mike's. Hell, they had as many rules here as they had in state lock-up. But from what I gathered from all of it was that I would be going to school during the day, and working around the church during the evening, on what was called "special projects".
At 9:00pm sharp one of the nuns yelled lights out and the room fell into darkness. "Psst, buddy. You got any smokes?" I assumed some idiot was talking to me.
I listened to hear where it was coming from, but really couldn't pinpoint it. "You got any pills?"
What the fuck? It had to be the dude in the cot next to me. "No man. I don't got shit. I just did thirty and they transferred me straight here."
"Fuck. Bad luck. Careful, sleep with an eye open. These bitches don't work for god, if you know what I mean."
"What, what are you saying?"
"Sleep gentlemen. No talking." Said a big burly nun with a metal flashlight.
I'm not sure how much time had passed until my neighbor spoke again. "All I'm saying is if you're young and virile, these cunt's will try to steal your soul."
"What? Come on man, what's that even mean?" I asked the question, but the answer never came. The big nun turned on her flashlight and was moving across the floor, with speed that surprised me. When she got to the cot next to mine, she kicked it. "One more word out of your mouth and I swear to Christ, your teeth will be tasting metal, understood?"