Waiting for Taylor and Luke to return, Aria found herself loosely watching over Anthony’s little denigrated arbor. The blue tarp over his head was contorting with the lift and release of the wind. Aria imagined that he must have actually had good Christmases once. It made her sad to imagine them. She could see him younger, wearing a ridiculous Christmas sweater and sitting down at a long table with so many family members that he would have to shout to be heard over the chorus of voices. Of course, she didn’t know if what she imagined was anything like his actual Christmases. But she could conjure up no other explanation for his catatonic state.

For most people, Christmas was a time of celebration. It was a time for gifts and family and feasts. But for people like herself and Anthony, whose ostracization had led them straight into the back alleys of life, Christmas was anything but that. Watching him, Aria began wishing that if people were actually capable of caring about the people in society who were damaged or down and out of luck, they would act every day like they did on Christmas Day. Then again, if they did, she doubted whether anyone would be living on the streets in the first place.

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 17

Home was not a person. Home was not a place. Having dug up their roots so many times, Taylor and Aria were beginning to wonder if people like themselves were homeless less because no home existed and more because neither of them even knew what home was. Other people seemed to know. They’d found it somewhere. Those people lacked the anxious searching that polluted Taylor and Aria’s lives. The pair debated the concept of home on their way to the church where Luke had taken them the day after they had met him so many months ago, hoping to find the doors open for lunch once again. Aria was conscious of how good it felt to walk down the street in new socks.

Something that Aria had come to find out is that when you are homeless, suddenly wealth is determined by a pair of new socks. They keep you warm, they keep you clean, they prevent a whole host of different ailments that occur when it seems like all you are doing with your life is walking. And as she had found out the hard way, when push comes to shove, they can serve many other functions than that which they were originally intended for.