It's me.  Mushmouth.  People call me that on 'count I talk funny.  Me, I can't help it.  Have cerebral palsy; was born with it.  Because of my CP, my legs are all bent up and I walk with braces and crutches.  Can't walk on my own; if I did, I'd always fall down.  

Fall down sometimes, even with my braces and crutches, but without them, it'd be a lot worse.

Now that the weather is gettin' warm (okay, hot), the peoples at the shelters been lettin' us homeless folk sleep in them if there's room.  If no room is available, we sleep in the alleyways or by air conditioning vents, where the cool air is a-blowin' on us, to cool us off.  If it's rainin', we sleep under overpasses or in abandoned buildings.  Or we sleep on park benches or under overpasses, out of the brutal Texas sunshine.  

The sunshine would literally cook us alive if we weren't more careful.  A person can cook to a crisp or die in this heat or end up with the heat strokes.  Not good if that happens!

Charlie, one of my friends, did that; he ended up wih the heatstrokes.  He nearly died; a policeman found him.  He was in the hospital for weeks, recovering.  He was bad sick.  Still ain't the same; now he stays out of the sunshine.  Don't blame him.  Lesson learned!

The stupid library peoples at Central Library still act like we got the plague or AIDS or something; a lot of them get annoyed if we go in to look at the books.  It's not like we are stealing them (though sometimes we get free books if there's too many in the book sale shelfs in the entryway; only way I can get me some books to read!).  We also get on the computer for an hour: some of us are lookin' for jobs.  

Me, I can't work.  I'm disabled.  I live off my street smarts or depend on others to give me some money so I don't starve.  I don't ask for much: I just get enough to where I can get a few lunches or some coffee (or now that it's hot out, ice tea or Coke-Colas).  Yum ... there's nothin' more sweeter than ice tea or a cold Coke-Cola on these hot Texas summertime days!

Sometimes people will walk by and see me; they then feel pity on me and give me a ten or maybe even a twenty.  I hang onto my money as if I were carryin' gold; I try to make it last.  I then thank God for carin' people and temporarily forget my lot in life.  'Tain't easy, though ....

Every Wednesday and Sunday, I go to church with my friends.  We go to the missions church up the way, and on Fridays, peoples from a church not too far 'ways come and minister to us.  They bring us food and share the love of Jesus.  That is how I met peoples like Kenna Grace Overmeyer and Tico Huechos, who are both kids still in high school.  I've since met more of these kids and adults, and they make all of us feel right special!

I and my buddies just love these Christians so much!  If it were not for them, I would have never found Jesus.  Jesus is mine; He lives in my heart.  I find I'm a lot nicer to people; don't let things bother me so much when they plenty enough could.  I give it to Jesus, and I know things will be okay, 'cause He helps me, each and every time!

Well, I gots some good news:  Q-Man, Rica and her boys, and Snaggle-Tooth Annie, they no longer homeless.  They live in a halfway house; they're on their way to becomin' a part of society.  They have their own place, so I don't see them much anymore.  

I miss them.  I wonder if they even think of me.  

I hope the same thing will happen to me.  Being homeless ain't no box of chocolates, ya know?  I wouldn't wish this on a dog or on my worst enemy!  It's just that things got bad, and I ended up here on the streets.  It wasn't even my fault.  So now I live here on the streets, and it is ugly a lot of the time, but it's my world.  Welcome to it.

Well, I gotta go.  My money is burnin' a hole in my pocket.  Smell burgers cookin' up the way; hear some accordion-and-fiddle music too; it sounds nice, so I think I will check it out, to see what is going on.  Maybe some people will be nice to me.  I hope so; one can never have too many friends!  Take care and may the Good Lord bless you real good! :)

~Mushmouth.  :)

~To be continued.~