Good chapter. Clark is learning how to survive on the streets.
Clark stared at him, and Charlie tapped the dumpster meaningfully.
Flinching, Clark scowled and said “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“You know what they call people with too much pride?” Charlie asked. When Clark shook his head, Charlie said,” They call them hungry.”
Yep, and when it comes to hunger, pride will eventually lose.
There's actually a whole subculture called freeganism where people subsist on what others have thrown away (deliberately subsist on trash, that is, unlike the homeless, who frequently have no choice). A lot of good stuff gets thrown away.
In addition to the food, Charlie had insisted that Clark gather every aluminum can he could find.
Aluminum cans are worth good money to recycle (plus it keeps them out of the landfill). There's a homeless family who makes the rounds of the recycle bins every trash day in my neighborhood. They also take plastic bottles, which are also worth money. Copper is also very valuable, leading some people to do things like steal pipes and other things made of copper (and occasionally results in headlines when someone tries to steal copper electrical wire and fails to turn off the electricity first, which is something that tends to end badly).
It amazed Clark how far they’d walked carrying a trashbag filled with stolen food without anyone asking any questions. When he’d asked Charlie, the older man had simply responded, “People don’t look at us if they can help it. Sometimes that’s hard; other times it can be useful.”
Yes, people often do ignore the homeless. It isn't always because of heartlessness ... sometimes it's because you don't want to stare or otherwise be rude. Sometimes being homeless can attract the wrong kind of attention, especially from cops, and then there's the people who are judgmental (I was recently mistaken for homeless because my clothes were worn out and dirty--I'd spent the day helping to clear weeds, and you don't wear your good clothes for that--and some lady was outraged that I had a cell phone and the money to buy food at the supermarket deli on my way home).
The older man had insisted that Clark find a coffee can. He’d cleaned it out, stuffed the toilet paper inside and filled the can with the rubbing alcohol.
“Always use at least 70 percent,” he said. “Ninety will burn hotter, but it’s a little more expensive. The cheaper stuff will go out too fast.”
The can provided a surprising amount of heat, and it had already burned for more than forty five minutes.
That reminds me of an experiment my middle school science teacher did. He asked a kid for a dollar bill, then soaked it in rubbing alcohol and set it on fire. The kid was horrified, but the bill didn't burn--only the alcohol did.
Charlie looked serious suddenly. “They don’t need a gate. Nobody steals from CostMart.”
“I don’t understand,” Clark said. “How would they know?”
“They’d know.” The older man leaned forward. “Don’t even think about taking as much as a stick of gum from them.”
There was something almost frantic about the expression in the older man’s face, and Clark wondered if this was the first signs he’d seen that the man was crazy. He didn’t run around talking to unseen figures like some of the men
Clark had seen in the shelters, but there were other, more hidden kinds of crazy.
“It’s not like CostMart is the mafia,” Clark said. He laughed uneasily, eyeing the older man and wondered if this was the moment he’d show how crazy he really was.
“They’ve got ties to some really dangerous people,” Charlie said soberly. “People on the street know not to mess with them. It’s a good way to disappear permanently.”
The older man didn’t speak for a long time, and Clark decided to let him have his delusions. If believing that CostMart was a front for the mafia was the extent of his craziness, Clark would just avoid the subject altogether.
Clark has a lot to learn -- if this is like canon, then CostMart is a front for Intergang.
This must be the same universe as Nan's "Vampire Murders". People might live on the streets, but don't make the assumption that they don't know what is going on in the world. Charlie isn't only going to teach Clark to survive, he's going to teach him how to investigate. The more I learn about him, the more I like Charlie.
yey!!!