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I was exhausted the
morning after my walk through the Los Angeles streets. I went over
to my storage unit at 7 AM and I gathered some gear for the
day. There would be much in store for the weekend and I had a lot to
think about like where I was headed and how I would get there, why I had chosen
this road less travelled and what its purpose was in my life. I
gathered up a beach umbrella and my headphones and headed out to the beach with
the intentions of getting some daytime shut eye and preparing for the weekend
at hand, after all, there was a party called GLOW being thrown on the beach
tomorrow night and I was definitely going to investigate that.
Alone I rested under
my umbrella until about noon time when I became hungry and I decided to go to
the Jack in the Box for some lunch. When I got there who did I saw
my Native American friend Apache who was also with a long haired country boy,
guitar strapped to his shoulder. We sat down for our lunch and I
learned that Zach had just caught a bus here from Birmingham,
Alabama. Zach said he was here to get into music or start a band and
I took that for what it was, but I had a gut feeling that he was running from
something.
While we were eating
lunch I got another call from one of the agencies that I was doing TV work
with. The woman on the phone asked me if I would be interested in
working in the studio audience this evening for a taping of The Spike Feresten
show which was featuring Bo Burnham. I had no idea who Spike or Bo
was, but I obliged and my friends needed some extra cash so I asked if I could
bring them as well. Needless to say my friends (who were literally
living on the streets) were excited to make $120 to watch a TV show to get
taped so we decided to head out to Hollywood to find some gear for them to wear
for the taping, their current clothing had little to be desired.
I have to say, with
little money to spend the task at hand was very difficult for my buddies, I
mean Apache had been sleeping under the pier and Zach in a park so I had to dig
deep into my repertoire. I’m pretty sure
we hit every possible thrift store in Hollywood and I had almost gotten them
all that they needed, but I couldn’t find any shoes that Zach could afford,
also, they needed showers and I very well could not take them both into the 24
Hour Fitness and let them piggyback on my membership. As we walked
and wondered what to do next so we stopped by the library in Hollywood. After
sitting on the internet for a while I found a center in Hollywood which aided
runaway teenage boys so a light bulb went off in my head, if I could convince
the people at the center that Zach and Apache were teenage runaways, I bet I
could get them some shoes and a shower.
The center was
roughly 4 blocks away and when we walked in there were kids playing pool and
darts and we were greeted by a large African American woman. Quickly, I
did all of the talking and told her that my friends were travelling on the
street and they needed some supplies for a job that I had found for them to
work with me, the lady said that she could help and that they were in good
hands so I told them I would be back in an hour and ran over to my favorite
store to grab a nice shirt and then to the gym for a shower and clean
up. I walked back into the clinic an hour later and I looked all
over for my friends and I couldn’t find them, kindly I asked the woman at the
desk if she had seen them and she her face lit up with a smile “They’re right
next to you” she said. I looked next to me and I could hardly recognize the two
young men by my side, both had haircuts, were shaven and dressed like they were
ready for a Saturday night on the town. This was going to be interesting!
