It's fun to stay at the YMCA

You decide to save what little money you have left. After all, what difference will one night make if you are out on the street the next morning. Best to get used to your new normal and hope to find a way to hustle a more permanent solution.

You arrive at the local men's shelter just as it is getting dark. The desk clerk has a look of resigned apathy. He has little patience for your difficulty answering his questions and none for questions you ask him. You finally get processed just in time to miss dinner and so you hit the showers with a grumbling belly and a shattered spirit. The water is barely warm, but as cold as you are it feels like heaven.

"Young man, there's no need to feel down..." you turn around to face the gruff scary voice and see a gruffer scarier man towering behind you. Gray and grizzled, covered in scars of dubious origin, with lean, knotted muscle. Well lean except for the muscle swinging between his leg like a thick, soapy rope. You jerk your eyes up, hoping he didn't notice. From the crooked grin and hungry eyes, you can tell he did...

"No need to be shy, boy, everything's Jake. My name's Leon Ray. We are all in close, cramped quarters here. We get used to seeing men's dangly parts real quick. Now you seem like a real fresh lamb. How long you been on the streets?" You see him sizing you up and suddenly the water feels a lot colder.

"Long enough...months even, and I learn fast." You try to keep your lip from quivering, your balled fists from shaking. Leon takes a passive posture and puts his hands out open in front of him.

"Hey, kid, no offense. I can see I was mistaken. You must have been flopping since the First of May. Why don't you let me make it up to you and knead those knots out of your back? These cots are harder than a bull. You don't want to go to bed with a crick and wake up with a crack. And me being such a bakehead, I owe you one. It's the hobo's code."

You have been unable to stop glancing down at his dangling rope, and everytime you do, it twitches like it's excited for the attention. You are pretty sure what his offer to work the knots out entails, and you think you should decline his kind offer. On the other hand, if you do, maybe he won't be so kind. Maybe you should just accept his kindness and hope for the best. On the other hand, if you turn him down, he might not be so kind. Maybe you should accept his kind offer and hope for the best.