Chapter 3: The Trap Is Sprung

I won’t bore you with the details of the past two months. However as an overview, I managed to purchase a home along the side of a mountain, gorgeous actually, and it was furnished from the previous owners. It was a little bigger and quite a bit more expensive than I had hoped, especially after paying to have 2.5 miles of coaxial cable laid in ground.

The last order of business was deciding what possessions I wanted to keep and what to dispose of. With my new house already furnished there’s very little I really wanted or needed, mostly just personal effects, and my computer systems.

While I was making all my living arrangements, or maybe I should say our. Because if this worked, I would be providing them a home as well. Either way, I continued to watch the family of three as they struggled through life on the streets. I could clearly see as hunger slowly eroded their bodies. The $20 couldn’t stretch far enough to keep them fit. It was hard to watch and not step in, but I needed to be patient to make this work. I needed them to be kicked down. It hurt even more inside to realize that no one else seemed to even care about a mother and her two children starving on the street. Most people would simply avert their gazes, while the snobbiest of society would pointedly cross the street rather than walk past the three. “Give us your tired, your poor” indeed. What have we become? Kayley, while regularly hitting the streets for employment, at least that’s how it seemed, just couldn’t seem to find a job. I suppose anyone would be hard pressed to hire someone with no mailing address.

I was inspired however, to see that the three of them, even through their tribulations, pulled even closer together to remain strong. It was common to see heartfelt hugs between the three, little gestures made to help each other, and even simple words of affection. These three held a strong bond indeed.

But after two months, it was time to put my plans into action and hope I don’t go to jail in the process.

It was early-September, and I made my way to the same small cafe arriving at 6AM to make sure I would catch them in time, even though I knew from habit, it would be at least half an hour before any of them got up. As it was, I saw the first stirrings from the daughter Kandi at about 6:40 and it wasn’t long before she was waking up the other two. At this, I motioned for the waitress and ordered a somewhat large selection of various breakfast items, telling her I had friends coming shortly.

Within 5 minutes an initial plateful of croissants was enough to begin, and so I watched for one of them to look over. It seemed like hours, like I was going to lose my quarry, in actuality it could only have been two or three minutes. Finally, I saw Tom look over in my direction. Immediately, I began waving my arm at him. When he didn’t seem to register me, maybe he was used to it not being him that was called out to by now, I had to give a quick, “HOY! TOM!” before he seemed to focus in on me. Even then he had to point at himself questioningly before he would accept my attentions. When he did I pointed at the three of them in turn and held up three fingers just to be clear, and waved my hand signaling them to come over. Then just to sell the deal I held up the plate of croissants.

Tom turned to his mother and pulling on her sleeve to get her attention, he said something to her and pointed over at me. When she looked over, I once again held up the croissants and waved her over. She seemed to hesitate for a minute then took both Kandi, who had noticed something was up by now, and Tom by the hands and led them across the street towards me.

Kayley made a point of stopping about five feet back with both children just slightly behind her. Eyes slightly downcast as if afraid it might offend, “Can I help you, umm, sir?”

I rose half way in my seat and gestured towards the table, “Please, have a seat. I’m sure you and your children are hungry, and I have this and plenty more food on the way.”

She looked skeptical, and she once again hesitated for a minute before turning to her kids, and even from here I could hear her tell them to stay put. Then she very cautiously crept towards me. She continued to keep her eyes down. Clearly the homeless life had knocked her down pretty far. As she reached the table she had to take a deep breath before she would even lower herself into her seat. I think she was afraid a lynch mob was about to come storming after her. When she finally was sitting she managed to glance very quickly up to my face then back down before asking, “What is it you want?”

“I would like to share a pleasant breakfast with you and your family here.”

This almost seemed too much for her to comprehend. She tried again, “People don’t just give us things...” she faltered, “what is it you want ... for the food?” She seemed terrified. I don’t know if she was terrified to ask, or terrified to hear the answer, but she was terrified nonetheless.

I raised an eyebrow at this, not that she saw. She refused to look me in the face. In fact her face seemed glued to her lap where her hands were writhing. “You say people don’t give you things? What about the weekly stipend I’ve been giving you?”

That did it. Her face snapped up to mine, eyes wide in shock, and she paled all the way down as far as I could see. Hell I bet her toes were white from the look she gave me. “You?” barely a whisper. Then with much more enthusiasm, “IT’S YOU! You’re him!” and jumping out of her seat, she continued, “It’s actually you! I get to meet you! Oh than-” and for a moment she froze. She had to take a deep breath and regain control of herself.

At the sudden exclamation both children had jumped and were starting to look panicked. To help cover for her sudden outburst I looked over at them and told them, “It’s alright, please come over and join us. Kayley?”

Hearing her name seemed to bring her out of her trance, and she followed my gaze towards her children only now remembering where she was and that they were there. “Yes, of course. It’s okay, you can come over.”