After finishing his last beer, Fausto was stuck with the option of either calling it quits for the night or walking down to the liquor store to buy another 6 pack. He leans to the latter, so he grabs a jacket to protect himself from the cold November night winds. Fausto walks out the door and a memory came to him, he remembers how it was when he first move to Saint Christopher's Ridge.
He moved from his hometown of Santa Modesto to attend the local university because the marine biology department was well-known for it's high transfer rate. Although marine biology wasn't something Fausto was excited to do for life, he figured that it was an easy track for a career. Considering that he lived by the coast all of his life, it was something he really didn't mind either.
The memory ran strong: the scent of the salty air, the cold breeze of the Autumn season, the comforting warmth of his brand new sherpa jacket as well as the nauseating rumbling of his stomach, brought on by nervousness. Fausto stood at the university entrance at the ripe age of 18. He remembers that he felt so bad that he had to sit down on a near by bench.
That's where he met Rachel. She was sitting down on the bench also but she wasn't alone. Rachel was talking to a brown haired boy that looked much older than both her and Fausto. Regardless, Fausto couldn't stop taking a glances at her and with each glance, he felt the nauseousness go away gradually.
A cold wind passed him and he caught a whiff of the perfume that Rachel was wearing. But this time, when the wind hit him, Fausto couldn't smell anything just the odor of the dingy apartment behind him. He thinks to himself that maybe lighting a cigarette in his home wasn't that bad of a thing to do.
He took the short walk to the liquor store and along the way he passes a homeless man that set up a tent in a vacant lot in between two small houses. The homeless man was in the process of setting a fire, he was grabbing a stack of old newspaper, a piece of crudely cut hunk of wood and some small pieces of dried out foliage. This peeked a drunken Fausto's interest and without fear, he approaches the homeless man. In a strange voice, almost like he is mimicking a crusader from medieval times, Fausto yells out, "Who goes there!?" followed by a drunken giggle. At first the homeless man is frighten but he returns in a giggle too.
"Hey man what are you doing out here?", asks Fausto in a curious fashion. When he got close, Fausto could smell the foul odor the homeless man was emitting. Regardless the abuse of the senses didn't really bother Fausto, if anything, it made him even more curious because how can someone smell so bad. "Hey man?!", Fausto shouts again. But as the homeless man realize that Fausto is getting closer and closer, he began to grow uncomfortable with how close he was getting. The homeless man replies nervously, "Um, hey, uh, man?"
Fausto caught on that he was making the homeless man uncomfortable and tries to break the tension, "Hey what's your name?!" This only made the homeless man even more uncomfortable.
"Crap, my bad! My name is Merlo, what's yours?!", asks Fausto.
"My name, my name is, uh, my name is uh-" says the man a bit frightened because Fausto keeps getting closer. "Your name is uh? That's a weird name", says Fausto. At this point Fausto is only couple of feet away from him.
"Well, uh, do you want a cigarette?", asks Fausto in his normal drunken voice.
"A cigarette?", asks the homeless man.
"Yeah, if you wan... ya can take the whole pack", says Fausto. The homeless man looks at Fausto with a surprise look, then says, "Thank you?"
"Yeh, no problem man", Fausto says as he hands him a half pack of cigarettes. "Umm, do you want some fish? I was just about to start cooking?", the homeless man asks. "Sure!", says Fausto excitedly.
Fausto sits down on the dirt, without regard for his jeans as he watches the homeless man set up his fire. "So how did ya end up here?", asks Fausto.
"What do you mean, sir?", asks the homeless man. "Like how did ya end up here, like wha made ya wanna be homeless?", asks Fausto. The man giggles and says, "I don't think anyone wants to be homeless, it just sort of happens."
"Ya think so?", asks Fausto in a child-like wonder and with his eyes wide open.
The homeless man sits up his fire and goes back to his tent to retrieve his fish. He grabs a shopping cart basket and puts it over the fire. He begins to use it as grill grate. The man continues what he was saying.
"When I was little, I didn't think about being homeless as a career. I know, I for sure I didn't think about it either when I had my first child", says the man. Fausto looks at him with sadness in his eyes and asks, "You had a kid?"
"Yeah", says the homeless man, "I have- had 2."
"Im sorry you lost them..."
"No they didn't die. I just lost custody of them but I think it was for the best, look at me now. I thought I was seconds away from getting my ass beat by you, imagine if I had my 2 boys, how would I defend them if I can't even defend myself but... but that's in the past they are probably both adults now."
"I'm sure they still think of you from time to time", says Fausto.
"Yeah, maybe", says the homeless man.
Suddenly Fausto hears a faint buzz coming from the direction of the ocean, almost like the ocean was replaced with hot grease. The homeless man also heard the buzzing sound, and it only grew louder. The homeless man panics, "Oh no, don't tell me it's happening again?!"
"Wha's happening?", asks Fausto. "Merlo, come into my tent. It will be bad if we stay out here while THAT thing is walking around here", says the homeless man. "That thing?", says Fausto.
The homeless man quickly puts out the fire with a bag of dirt and grabs Fausto by the sleeve and leads him into his tent. Fausto in the excitement, took a deep inhale and with it, the strong smell of the dirty homeless. He thinks to himself that it smells gross, "Ah man don't do that-", says Fausto before being yelled at by the homeless man.
"Shut the hell up Merlo. That thing is going to walk pass here again."
"What thing-
"Shh."
In the distance, the both men can hear the sound of something being dragged on the street, accompanied by the sound of some sort of voice. There was no logical way to explain the voice, it was almost as the wind was speaking. Just the light breeze but within the soothing air, a type of language was being transmitted. The boiling sound was getting louder and louder, closer and closer to the tent that both men were sitting in.