A Dish Rag in Huntington Beach

Had a wonderful day at the Huntington Park Senior Center. The breaded fish with couscous was just what I needed to awake my hungry body. Of course of few friends at the back table awarded me seconds and thirds. Jim gave me his fish, and Rosa added another along with a milk and crackers.
   It had been a tough week as I tried to live on a few dollars a day. You see, the owner of the Cracker Box apartments on Maggie Street had taken two security deposits and the second one really hurt my pocket books as well as my stomach.
   Before leaving the Senior Center I felt like playing a few ditties on the grand piano. It felt good to lay my hands on the white keys as the piano must have been serviced.  After 'Spanish Eyes', I began to play 'Let Me Call You Sweet Heart', when I heard a thud on the piano.
   "It's Bingo Time and you must stop playing now. You must sign up to play the piano!!
    "Fuck you" I thought but thought better of it and didn't say it. "May, do you have a husband?" I screamed...You don't...Well I can see why.
    But I had better things to do and no dingbat could destroy my serenity. Outside the #25 bus took me to the PCH where the #29 took me  back to my old apartment. They had given me an eviction notice but It was I who was going to evict them!
    Low on money, I walked to the Health Center Nursing Home and asked my brother to withdraw a few bucks from his account. Mel had a five day growth and could barely leave the bed. He withdrew fifty dollars from his  account and signed a paper. We returned to his 136 B room.
    The man in the next bed looked as if he was dying. They removed him as well as his possessions. He had contacted Agent Orange as well as Parkinson's disease during the Korean War. Mel seemed upset that he was leaving as he didn't know what kind of an animal would replace him in Bed one.
     "George, ever since you left they have been treating me like a dish rag. And the two still shout every day and night. My neck hurts and Jennings came in and told me they would take care of the cancer inside my ear."
I left for Trader Joes and later, returned with tangerines and two steaks. Mel felt like eating at four o'clock. He reminded me that his steaks must be medium rare, as I took them to the cafeteria and told them how to prepare the meat.
   Back at my old apartment I took a two hour nap and fell into a deep sleep. When I awoke at six thirty I again trudged up the street to see Mel. He had just been brought two steaks, but I thought what the hell, and indulged anyhow. Both plates included peas and mashed potatoes. Mel ate with flourish and began to smile.
   I put one a Pro football game and we enjoyed each others company.
  "George, when you are away, they treat me like a dish rag. Why they don't bring me hot chocolate and forget to shave me...on purpose. Thank God you are back."
  

Disneyland on the 33 bus.

After a two mile run on Magnolia to a Vons store. I stocked up on coffee and bought a bag of eight fried chickens. Was I hungry? It was going on eight and he AC at Vons put me in a better frame of mind.
   The #33 bus would be coming momentarily to take me to the PCH and the #1.  I wished to get to Pacific City's shopping center with its majestic view of the beachgoers, pier and hopefully Catalina. My mind began to crystalize into why my manager tried to kill me. Officer Rizzo had told me to get a report on the theft of Dolly, my brother's car, but I had been stonewalled and the Huntington Beach police here would not give it to me.
   "Your case has been closed."
    The Magnolia bus finally arrived. They go every one and a half hours on weekends. I half feel asleep and when I awoke, I was headed in the direction of Disneyland and no longer at the end of Magnolia wish spills out at the beach and fire station.
    "Hey, what is going on here. We are supposed to be on Magnolia, yea?!!
    Totally disgruntled, she remarked, "Jus wait till I find out where I am...You know I am a new driver and..."
     "Mam, I have asthma and need to get back to the PCH!!!
      "Is get you back. Now have directions"
      The driver circled around and repeated her performance driving in the opposite direction. She returned me to "Maggy" Street and the Octa sign. There is where the one bus would pick me up. It was hot, real hot. I reached into my white Von's bag of chicken, but no longer did I have it. I had left it on the bus and it would be no use to squawk.
      The number one bus arrived and I felt safe at last...That is until Beach came up. The bus driver mumbled something and made a right instead of maintaining a PCH direction.
       "We have a slight detour. I am going to turn around at Warner, circle and come back to the highway."
       Shit.. God dam son-of-a-bitch.  I will walk the highway!!
       So I got off and began to walk...But it felt strange.. Yes I carried my knap sack but had forgotten my jacket with my Cell phone inside. And it was unbearably hot. Real hot. But I needed my cell phone even if it meant trading my food money for another cell.
 I then went to my apartment on Florida and napped for a few minutes with the AC on full blast. With my rekindled nerves. I visited station four and brother Mel. I put on the T.V. so he could watch th game.
   "Did you bring a steak?"
   "No Mel, out of money. Take about one hundred out of your trust account and I can fill you up on meat as well as ice burg lettuce. Mel allowed me to eat one of his two hotdogs and I returned to my Florida apartment.
     I still wondered why the manager refused to fix my lock and told me to use "graphite". Thank God my daughter made the call to save my life that October. In the same Indian summer month, I had to go to Kaiser and get a new drug for my asthma.
   

A Surf City Eviction

I tried to fall asleep last night but the threat of eviction disturbed it. Yes  I needed a sleeping pill. Over 1070 on your radio dial, I heard the shots that riddled our city, Huntington Beach. It was placed on video for the public to see.
     It appeared that an off-duty policeman confronted another at the Seven Eleven not far from Warner Avenue and pelted him with bullets seven times. So what else is new, just another obsequious day in our city.  I had written that Surf City has many skin heads, beards, tattoos, electric cigarette running with a screw loose over this city. Many our juiced up and have no control of their actions. Wait a second, that was my daughter.
     "Dad she can't evict you. Aren't you a senior citizen?"
     "Well daughter, as you can see, this Mom and Pop apartment treats us like dirt. Why on labor day, we had no water, security or maintenance. No doubt the manager  has a bad case of OCD along with dementia..."
      "I will put my trust on God, and thank God I have two daughters to take care of their old POP. had girls to take care of their old POP."
 Two weeks later, my daughter took agency. She found me a place about a mile from the Mom and
   Pop apartments.  No far from Talbert off of Magnolia, the complex resembled a village of two story apartments with fir trees covering their roofs. Flowers graced each building with a few golden ponds on the way to the pool next to a Jacuzzi.
   Exhausted and haunted by my first eviction notice, the manger had been crestfallen by the shootings in Vegas and it took all of three hours to sign the lease papers, after she decided to hand me the keys. Now I had taken three buses to get there so I limped to the Taco Bell across the street and treated myself to two regular soft tacos. I savored each bite and as always spoke to myself.
   "Not too shabby George. You hung in there and had the $3,300 packaged neatly into one hundred dollar bills wrapped in a rubber band. No longer are you under the dominion of the Lady in the Cage...You are getting the hang of it when your daughter tells you to take agency. I kissed the third taco as if it were me."
   I savored this day and enjoyed the three buses back to my Mom and Pop apartments across the street from Trader Joes on Main. I did not have the money to buy my ailing brother at the Sea Cliff Health Center but knew he had money in his trust account, maybe enough for a down for a car. Yes I felt jubilant that no longer would anybody to use the words "eviction" that come out of Helen mouth far too often.
   Upstairs on the fourth floor, I kissed the upright and it sprang into action better than ever. Now I had heavy metal over my soul and I played White Christmas a bit early but who gives a hoot. I play the upright and read every night before I turn in. At Mel's nursing home, I had turned on the T.V. and made sure he could watch the baseball game. Mel wished for the Dodgers to make it to another  World Series, and who knows, they just might win one.
  And now that I am on my brother Mel, it is a good time to tweak the nursing center for the lack of transparency, accountability and team work. Still I don't know what Mel is being treated for even though he has not seen a doctor except some dermatologist. Mel had somehow survived the hospice are in area four, but perhaps all could have been avoided.
  Too bad the nursing center is not updated with a password for each patient. As his next of kin, I should be able to hit a button and get a print out of what he is treated for. I have been totally in the dark.
  Oh yes, the Lady in the Cage is my manager who monitors each patron as we leave or enter. Yes, it is much like a jail. Each morning, Stella polished the floors, and sprays everywhere to trick the new tenants into thinking that the entire building  is that way. What a ruse!