It was supposed to convey that he was the guy in charge, the man who feared no danger. But it was also kind of funny, and kind of a joke, as he wasn't really fully in charge, and he was plenty afraid of various dangers! He's also the one who said, "Say my name!", but that usually failed to intimidate, too!
For my own situation of theoretically being "in charge" of 490 Outreach with six random adult addicts here at any given time, I think of myself as "the one who meows". Because like any other cat, when I'm away, various recovering mice will play! And like that show, the hiss is worse than the scratch!
Case in point. A man fails to have his program fee, and doesn't show up a few nights, and so I place his things on the porch for him. I try contacting him, and can "see" that he has "seen" the message, but he fails to answer or come by.
Meanwhile, a church friend of mine needs aid moving stuff from Hammond, Indiana to Springfield, so I must go on that little overnight trip.
Yeah, you can see this coming.
Sunday, I'm up near Chicago aiding a friend, and that's when the guy kicked out wants to come by and go shopping. "Shopping" is what I call the practice of a guest wishing to do a "walk through" to "check to see if any of his stuff is still there" but it really turns into him pointing to anything pawnable and carryable and saying, "And that, and that, and that".
He could be pointing to the stuff of other guests not there, or he could be pointing to stuff that we have provided to the house. In rare instances, he may be pointing to his own stuff, but that is very rare. As in, that hasn't happened yet.
Thing is, I already had his bed filled and the door code changed, so he was in a bit of a quandary. He couldn't just walk in and start grabbing. So he knocks and when a new guest opens the door he pulls a knife on him and demands his stuff. Or that's the version I heard. I'm thinking a more likely scenario is he not pulling a knife but trying to push in, then the larger guest pushing back, then the littler former guest getting panicky and pulling the knife.
Well, he is small, and knives aren't the automatic "take it, take it" that a gun would be, so naturally the guest is going to discuss this issue vigorously with him. Loud enough for my wife to come out and get between them. She was able to get the one guy to put the knife away, and more importantly, get the other guy to not worry about calling the police.
He agreed not to. Thank heavens. There's never any problem so bad that the police won't make it worse the moment they arrive.
He left, as my wife told him I'd be back by six thirty, which I had originally thought I'd be. But he let her know about the TV and DVD player that was his. And how he'd call the cops if he couldn't get it. Which had her on the phone to me pretty fast. For the review of what to do if men with guns show up to see which story they enjoy more.
(Cops are reactive. Thus when they arrive they listen to the opposing stories and depending on which they hear first or like better or fits better or lets them have more fun they'll decide who to believe. Maybe it would be Story A, where a poor homeless waif is kicked out illegally by Cruella DeVille who wanted a free box TV and a used DVD player, neither even pawnable. Or maybe it would be Story B, where we're a business who had a relapsed guest leave and he wants to loot us on the way out. Yes, our story is the true one, but truth or falsity has nothing to do with the determination of the cop at the scene.)
That then was a situation that I had to focus on long distance over a span of a few hours that day. And then deal with additionally when I got home. See, another guest, who dislikes me not for anything I've specifically done, but because he perceives me as having some tiny smidgelet of authority, had pulled a fast one.
First off, this guy is hilariously touchy. I once asked him why he was the only one who was always angry with me no matter what I said or did. He finally said it was for me "prying into his business". Having not talked to him much, I was curious as to how I had done that. He named examples. For one, every time I saw him, I'd ask how he was doing and how his job was going. For two, I had asked if the girl who sat on the porch with him was his girlfriend.
I pondered that and said, "Bad news. I'm a program supervisor, so I guess I'll always pry a bit. But worse news, I had not yet begun to pry! I just asked you those things as, well, what else was I going to talk to you about? It's not like I know you. Was I to talk about who's who in the music world?" He, being younger and of a different background then me, did smile at that, acknowledging in that smile that we'd have little to discuss when it came to our views on popular culture!
He was a friend of the guy who had been kicked out. So while I was gone that Sunday, he went over, knocked on the door, and when my wife answered, entered that back door, as he said he was there to see the two downstairs. She thus thought he was their friend. But when down there, he was acting to them as if my wife had gave him permission to come and get - the DVD player!
Which he proceeded to take, in theory for the former guest. In reality, he hooked it up next door at the main sober living home. My wife related this to me, and when I got home, I had to correct that. By the simple expedient of going over and unhooking it. As I told him, "You didn't really think that going into the house I live in and taking stuff without asking was a thing, did you?" He gave me the "I thought that belonged to the last guy..." and I said, "Best in the future to let me worry about departing guests and what belongs to who."
And because someone asked me, the reason why he would not be kicked out for that is because we're here to aid people in their sobriety, not for curing all manner of silliness. So stuff like that is just part of what you put up with while helping them with their addictions.
The next day, Monday, the departed guest finally did show up. And took the stuff that I had for him on the porch. And made absolutely no mention of a TV or DVD player, as he had no doubt been told, by the guest who had tried for the DVD player, that I wasn't having it.
Because I am the one who meows!
No comments:
Post a Comment