Interview with the Wanderers

“They say I’m crazy you know.”

“Yes, I know that of course.”

“I’m not; at least I don’t think I am. Let’s put it this way, I may not be normal but I’m not mad. I thought things out for a long time before I chose this life. If I’m crazy then so is the rest of the world for thinking that the ramblings of a crazy person are news.”

“I’m not a reporter, I’m a writer. Just tell me about yourself. I need material for my latest book.”

“Are you going to pay me for this?”

“Yes, of course, five hundred dollars for the interview, and the rights to publish it in my book.”

“I don’t want my real name used, if you use my real name people might hunt me down, people are like that.”

“Of course, a fake name, I’ll choose one randomly.”

“Alright, so what do you want to know?”

“Do you live here?”

“That’s right; I’ve slept here for the past two years. Welcome to tent town, though they won’t let us have tents.”

“What do you sleep under if it rains then? What about during the winter, of course you have some sort of shelter.”

“I have a tarp that works as a cover, and some blankets. I like it here then I do in a shelter, I get more freedom, and less people preaching at me.”

“Where did you live before you came here?”

“Here and there, not any one place for very long. I heard about this place so I came here. A long time ago I lived in a house in the suburbs, lived there with my wife, that was about ten years ago now.”

“What did you do at the time? To have a house in the suburbs you of course had a job.”

“I worked in the Target business office, it paid pretty well.”

“So you went to college?”

“That’s right, got a degree in business with a minor in economics.”

“Did you lose your job at Target?”

“No, I quit it, I got very bored. It was the same thing, day after day.”

“Of course with your degree you could have found a new job.”

“I could have, but I didn’t feel like it. I was very bored. One day I went out for a walk and never went back home. My wife didn’t understand anyway.”

“Didn’t understand what?”

“The way I thought, she thought I should go see a shrink or something, that’s the first time someone told me I was crazy, not the last. I just stopped seeing the point in living like that.”

“So you kept walking. Did you bring any money or belongings with you?”

“It wasn’t like I had planed it out like that; I had about five dollars in my wallet and the shirt on my back and that was all. I just never felt like turning around. Night fell and I found myself out in the country so I fell asleep in a cornfield and the next day just kept right on down the road. When the road forked I’d just pick a direction randomly. I lived like that for a long time.”

“How did you eat during that time?”

To be continued...