#110: Help The HomeLess

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David Preston was sitting inside his tent beside the interstate deep in the heart of the city. His tent was perched on a ten foot wide shelf where the wall terraced. Behind and above him was a sheer vertical cliff of about fifty foot, to the other side of him, below him, was another sheer cliff dropping down to the very busy interstate. To fall off his perch on the narrow terrace was to fall into traffic and get run over.

To get run over many, many, times very quickly. It was a very busy freeway. Such an unfortunate person would be smashed to a bloody paste almost instantly.

That was what David liked about it.

Solitude. there was no one else around, for certain values of ‘around’. He was camped dead center in a metropolis of hundreds of thousands of people and yet he was as alone as if he was in a desert or a forest. Sometimes he imagined that the sound of traffic was the sound of a waterfall.

He imagined that he was camped beside a river near that waterfall, he could even hear the sound of wings flapping, like that of a small bird.

“Hey buddy”...he thought he heard a voice. It sounded rather like a Crow. It was hard to hear over the sound of the traffic.

“HEY BUDDY...what’s a matter with you? You Deaf?”A small voice said...yup...he’d definitely heard that.

“What is it?” David replied. Was it the cops? The cops normally didn’t hassle him. He wasn’t bothering anyone. He didn’t leave a mess. He was out of sight...and if they did bother him they were risking their lives. A scuffle up here on the ledge was freaking DANGEROUS.

“You need some help?” asked the tiny voice.

Oh no...though David. Another homeless person wants my stuff.

“You can’t have my stuff” Yelled David. “I stole it fair and square...go get your own stuff. Go away. Leave me alone!”

“NO….that’s not what I said.” replied the small unknown voice. “I can give you stuff though. For you. For Free. I have a thing, a tool, that will get you almost anything you want...You want it?”

Oh Hell, thought David. A drug dealer. This was the last thing he needed.

“What?” he yelled back...to stall. He had to stall. He had to delay them. He didn’t know what to do but he had to stall.

David watched in amazement as a small black bird strutted into his tent. It was an odd looking bird. David looked closer. It wasn’t a bird at all. It was a bat! No..that wasn’t right. It wasn’t possible! It was a tiny dragon. The tiny dragon was carrying something. It placed it on the floor of the tent then looked David in the eye.

“Put this on” the small creature said faintly.

David cautiously picked the object up. It unfolded into a plastic headband. If the truth be told David could use something to keep his hair back. His hair was long, wild and unruly.

Why not? David slowly, cautiously combed his hair back with his fingers and put the band onto his head.

David had no more got the headband positioned correctly on his head than.....it stung him like a wasp.

“Owwwwww!” David cried out and tried to remove the offending item. Wasn’t happening. The headband wouldn’t come off.

The pain was brief then it went away.

“Now we can talk” said the voice in his head. “Can you hear me ok? Is the voice too loud or is it too soft?”

David jumped...but then settled down. How was THAT happening? He was hearing a voice in his head! “Yes...I can hear you ok. What do you want?”

“ Affirmative. Audio parameter set as a baseline. All other parameters will be set automatically as needed. This unit’s function is to help you” said the voice. “Look at the picture”

“What pic……..tuuuuuuuuuuuuure”...David started to say when a vista opened before him. First it was blurry then it focused. Soon it was plain as day. He saw riches beyond his most fabulous dreams.

“ Do you want any of that stuff?” said the voice “Do you want ALL of that stuff?”.

“Well yeah” said David “who wouldn’t. How can I get that stuff?”

“Watch ” said the voice “Everything will be explained.

A virtual computer screen appeared before him.

“Watch the video” said a voice in his head. A menu popped up onto the screen. On it were a list of categories. There were categories for everything from Apples to Zirconium. He watched as a hand swiped the menu. The menu scrolled down to Camping Equipment. He saw finger tap the box labeled Camping Equipment and sub-menu’s presented themselves.

The finger tapped the box for Tent, and a list of tents appeared. Every kind of tent imaginable. The hand selected something called The Ultimate Homeless Guy’s Smart Tent.

In the video David saw a much larger Dragon Creature lay an egg. Almost instantly the egg hatched to reveal a small black bundle. The hand pressed a button on it’s side marked “Erect.”

A fabulous tent expanded and assembled itself from the small egg. It was impossible. The view moved to show the inside of the tent. It was amazing. It had more room , more options and was much more comfortable than the tent was sitting in.

“That is one example” said the voice in the ear piece “You may choose anything you like from any of the menu’s. Your choice may be limited by the feed stock reserve or your avatar. It may need to be fed for larger objects. Almost anything will be sufficient for food. Any kind of trash or even organic matter. If you are confused select ‘help’. This program will appear.”

The voice in his head went silent. Was it some kind of a recording? Somehow that made David feel SO much better. It wasn’t a live. It was just some kind of a machine. He could deal with that.

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The Next Episode is
#111: That Went Rather Well
The Previous Episode was
#109: Mugged…
the First episode was
#1 : Prologue

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I'm

@everittdmickey
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I write
SPECULATIVE FICTION
I have books on Amazon too.
Sometimes I also comment on the news

Sometimes it's hard to tell fiction from the news.