Fifty-Boy
22
Palm Trees - Hot Tubs - Curvy Girls
An outreach worker named Anna gave me a sandwich five nights in a row. She was driving a van that said Covenant House For Teens on the side. I guess she could tell I was hungry. I let her know I was living in the subway under Suburban Station. I let her know maybe ten or twenty times, just in case.
Early Saturday morning I started hitching back to the shore along 42 and got lucky. A priest in a new black Camry rode me all the way to Frank Farley rest stop on the AC Expressway. From there I called Spirit Airlines. They had a flight the next day to Tampa.
By eleven on Saturday morning I was at the Hamilton Mall.
By noon I had new clothes, carry-on luggage, shoes, and a haircut.
By one I found a travel agent and bought my ticket.
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By five I was in the Barnes and Boble Cafe eating an egg sandwich with havarti cheese, sipping coffee, and reading travel guides to Tampa, Clearwater, Saint Pete's.
I found a motel, ordered a taxi for the morning, had a real shower, and went to sleep on a real bed by ten.
I couldn't hardly sleep.
Two o'clock Sunday afternoon I was buckling the new me in the seat. The things I purchased at the Mall were stuffed in the overhead with the money, taxiing for takeoff.By four-thirty I was strolling out into the most aquamarine airport I'd ever seen - Cool tile floors, seashell walls, enameled mosaics - Pelicans - Palm Trees - Dolphins and Fish.
Man, I could've ridden those jazzy little orange and blue monorails back and forth between the terminals all day long, just looking at the palm trees and curvy girls in tight capri pants, clean tropical feet, pastel toes, healthy brown shoulders, sunlit hair.
I must have made security nervous. I could tell by the way they were looking at me.
So I hopped a shuttle to a place they had a picture of, the Sheraton Sand key, and reviewed my escape in the hot tub with a mojito in my hand and the same silly smile all over my face.
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