About A Girl

I was sitting one night in my sleeping bag, gazing into space and recounting in wonder how my day had unfolded and how blessed I am given my circumstances when my train of thought was derailed by the unexpected arrival of a young lady.  She was very much of the transitory type, having just been released from hospital for various psychiatric and addiction treatments, before which she had been detained for some kind of altercation. I lost track of who was who in her recounting.  You could see from her matted hair and marks on her face that she had been on the streets for some time.  The probationary service was working with her so I was happy to hear that structure was returning to her life.

 

She had a wonderfully random way of asking about me; instead of straight-forward questions, she would turn to me and offer greatly inaccurate supposition for me to untangle.  For example, instead of just asking my age she said “So, you are 127 years old?”. Clearly not but maybe my time on the streets has not been so kind after all…..

 

Like many of the smokers who are homeless, getting a nicotine fix requires some cooperation in order to assemble the required components.  She somehow managed to take this to  whole new level that would have Government Departments for Incompetence pulling their hair out.  If you were to time the whole roll-up making process from “I am going to roll a cig” to actually lighting it you would not need a stopwatch so much as a calendar.  The process unfolded something like this:

  •  Pick up baccy pouch and check inside for presence of tobacco
  • Put tobacco pouch back in pocket and begin seemingly endless search through many pockets for a cigarette paper.  The search is of a thoroughness that would impress airport Customs Officers
  • Take tobacco pouch back out of pocket and carefully open it in the manner of a bomb disposal expert, to find cigarette papers nestled within
  • Remove cigarette paper from pack and toy with it nervously for a couple of minutes
  • Place paper back in pouch and return pouch to coat pocket
  • Begin a thorough search through endless pockets etc for anything which could be used to make a filter.  Repeat as required but ensure each pocket is searched at least half a dozen times
  • Repeat trawl through pockets whilst trying to remember which one the tobacco pouch is in
  • Open pouch and watch the cigarette paper blow away in the breeze
  • Eventually find another cigarette paper and place some tobacco along its length
  • Carefully place the partly constructed roll-up on the ground in front of you
  • Search for the filter making material that was unearthed earlier
  • Tear small strip off and fashion into cigarette filter
  • Knock the partly made cig over, causing flakes of tobacco to scatter liberally and the cigarette paper to blow away in the breeze
  • Gather up as much of the stray tobacco as possible (it is a rare and valuable commodity on the streets)
  • Begin another lengthy search for a cigarette paper in an outfit that I am starting to believe is actually an exercise in joining pockets together to create a wearable garment
  • Place tobacco into newly found cigarette paper
  •  Set partly made cigarette down and search for the filter which was made some time ago and which by now may well have evolved into something else or safely biodegraded
  •  Place filter into cigarette paper and roll into cigarette
  •  Look around aimlessly with the dawning realisation that you do no have a cigarette lighter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was only a matter of time before somebody walked past with a cigarette on the go.  My new friend had a lit cigarette and the world was good.  She later fed me a sandwich by tearing small pieces off and “flying” them towards my mouth in much the same way a mother feeds a baby.  Too cute.  We chatted through the rest of the night and early morning until the time come for us to part company.  We said our farewells with a hug and a kiss (or two or three) and went our separate ways.  She was a lady who genuinely touched my heart and I think about her often.  I hope that wherever she is now she is safe and well and maybe even a little quicker at rolling cigarettes…..