Sunday, June 17, 2018

All She Wanted Was a Pepsi

I passed a taco place called Taco Bus on my way to Cafe Hey, that coffeehouse from the other night, and since tacos are one of my favorite things to put in my mouth, I got so excited, I almost didn't make it to the cafe. I did, though, as you know, but I told myself I'd eat there before going home, and tonight I made it back. While I did have some really amazing poblano pepper and mushroom tacos, I'm not here to talk about food. I'm here to talk about the homeless girl I bought dinner instead. 

I was sitting outside eating my tacos when she approached. As soon as she said, Excuse me, could you, I started to say no because I expected something about money to finish that question. It didn't, though. Can you buy me something to eat? she asked. I don't need money. Just food. My instinct was still to say no, but then I thought about it. This poor girl was hungry, and it's not like I'm poor. It's also not like she was asking for money to do who knows what with. She wanted food. How could I say no to buying the girl food?

Sure, I said. I'll buy you something to eat. Let's go in.  

I picked up my mostly eaten food, put my purse over my head, and walked into Taco Bus with the girl behind me. Do you know what you want? I asked. 

Shrimp quesadilla, no vegetables, she answered right away and then added that's what she always gets when people buy her food. Apparently it happens all the time. (That's not salt, by the way. Just facts.)

Shrimp quesadilla, no vegetables, I said to the guy behind the counter and then turned to the girl. Okay, I said. Here's your receipt. I handed it to her and went back outside to finish dinner.

You think my story's over but it's ready to begin.

She sat with me. 

Her names--one of her two "government names" that belonged to her daughters who were stolen from her so she uses their names--were Athena for sure and Alisha I'm pretty sure. She seemed normal enough if not horrifically challenged in the dientes at first, and at first, I guess I mean for about one minute flat. She just kept thanking me and telling me about how she usually gets food, and, well, if I wasn't the conversationalist that I am and didn't ask her so many questions, I'd never know that she's insane. 

The first thing I found out about Athena Alisha is that she just got back to Tampa after being in Wisconsin, California, and Louisiana not because she wanted to be but because she was taken by some very bad people and luckily escaped to Louisiana where she lived for what I found to be a confusing amount of time, maybe not as confusing as the fact that when I asked her how old she was she told me her reincarnated years were 31 but then later told me the people who took her to Wisconsin killed her and there are Polaroid pictures of it and everything yet there she was--I mean, if she was murdered just not too long ago in Wisconsin, how is her reincarnation age 31?--but confusing nevertheless.

I also found out that she has a brother/husband whose name is totally escaping me right now but I'm sure it will come back, and that he saved her in Wisconsin, and he saves her here all the time, and he comes before her looking different sometimes, just like Diablo, who's one of her stepfathers, and that she and her brother/husband have a son named Elijah who sexually molested them and people want them to sacrifice him but she can't do that to her son. She does, however, let angry things come out of her mouth sometimes, violent things, and she does violent things sometimes, but only when the bad people make her. She's sliced people in half, but only because she had no choice. Oh, she also showed me the spots where she recently had an IV when she was in the hospital after the police found her with half a bitten off toe.

After ten, maybe fifteen minutes of talking to Athena Ashley, I told her it was nice meeting her and I hoped she'd stay safe, and I went on my way.

While I was sitting there hearing her story, a lot of it which I haven't relayed (like, do you know she doesn't even know where she's from? And I'm pretty sure she thinks she's God), her story that I initially got out of her because I thought it would be good research for something I might one day write, I felt so sad. This girl seemed so genuinely nice and so genuinely believed the things she believed because she was so genuinely mentally ill, it was hard to take. 

How many people? How many people out there are just like her? You know, we see these homeless people and we harumph and we grumble and we say they should get jobs, but let me tell you, people who read my blog, there is no way on the gods' green earth that this girl could have a job. She was, to put it in not nice terms, batshit insane. 

I mean, I'm not making it up when I say I think she thought she was God. Well, except actually, that in contrast to the things she said that led me to that belief, she also said, after telling me she had leukemia, diabetes, and one other thing I can't remember, and I said I was sorry, not to be sorry, that she's not afraid at all because He'll take care of her. 

You know, because he's doing such a marvelous job so far. 

(Kirby! That's the brother/husband. It just came.)

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