Alleys & Ruins no. 96, Steps III (2006, Des Moines, IA, 11:30pm)
Steve, a friendly homeless guy in his 60’s walks up to me and says Hi. I’ve been walking around alleys all night in Des Moines, having found nothing to shoot, so this is a welcome distraction. He’s very animated, gesticulating in exaggerated ways when he speaks. He quickly lands on the subject of his life and wants to tell me his life story.
With arms gesturing in absurd, unrelated and distracting ways, he tells me when he was in his 30’s he was drifting through life. A close relative dies and he gets a big inheritance. He decides it’s time to get serious. He gets a job, finds a woman, gets married, and buys a house, because that’s what you do when you get serious. The marriage lasts 3 years and they divorce and sell the house.
In the settlement he is told to pay his ex wife half the value of the house. He freaks out since the house was paid entirely with his inheritance. His arms and hands are moving like mad now. He says the hell with the verdict, I’m going on a journey! He buys a van and decks it out with plush carpeting in the back, installs shelves, a closet, a bed...
He takes the money and goes on a road trip around the country. He spends money extravagantly, meets lots of women and one introduces him to crack.
After 2 years, his bank account has been reduced to zero and he’s a crack addict. Soon after he’s living on the street. He fights the addiction and tells me breaking his crack habit was the most horrendous thing he’s experienced in his life. A thousand times worse than being homeless, which he seems to accept as not too bad. Now he’s mostly drunk, whenever he can, but there’s no way in hell he plans to stop that, he says laughing heartily as his arms finally come down.
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