i worked both christmas eve into christmas morn, and new years eve into the new year, scheduled from 10pm to 7am. i accepted it, although it was odd to not be able to indulge as i had in the past...
but things happened on both of those nights while i worked...things disturbing-especially in light of what said days are supposed to represent; they reinforced much inside of me, as to what so many of the human animal are, in fact. the future doesn't hold much promise.
christmas eve:
the first incident concerned having to take a number of bags of presents left at a station to lost and found...these being presents for children and, based on what some of them were since there were some ripped open, they were destined for kids who likely don't have much to begin with. apparently they were left behind when the parents/guardians were arrested by the police and carted away. obviously, these kids were going to wake up to a christmas few of us could likely imagine....without any visit from santa....
the second incident...3am...another station, where i was dealing with an issue already, when a young woman-extremely upset-ran up the stairs past me towards the train platform....then minutes later running back crying and asking when the next train was due. i told her they stopped for the night, but that i could call her a cab....she replied that she had no money, as she wandered down the stairs absolutely devestated...hysterical...
i went and met up with her and asked if there was anything i could do...she said she just wanted to go home downtown....she had just had a 'bad date' who dumped her in the middle of nowhere....she made it to the station and had hoped to go home...
i asked her if she wanted to call the police-she said no. i asked her if she'd accept a ride from the peace officers if they could come and she agreed...so i radioed in confidence on a closed line to let them know of a woman in distress....not wanting to necessarily say much. this woman told me to just explain it all, so i said she was a prostitute traumatised from a bad encounter, who simply needed to go home-which was the homeless shelter. they said they would send a van...
at that moment, she still crying and shaking from the ordeal, looked so vulnerable...so alone.
i asked her if she could use a hug-she looked at me and collapsed in my arms, where i held her until the van arrived. i wanted her to feel she was not alone in this world...that she is not a piece of dirt that no doubt the asshole had made her feel, prior to going home to the warm and fuzzies of a christmas with family...
at the end of my shift i went to the shelter, to be confronted with a place over-run with human tragedies...lined up in the stairwells, covering every inch of the floors...i was unable to discover how she was feeling and so, after leaving my name and a message, went home...where it overwhelmed me and i broke down...
new years eve.
at the one station, as i was checking it i heard crying in one shelter on the platform, coming from a girl maybe 15 years of age. i asked her if i could be of help, she needed to use a phone, and i only had my radio. i suggested i could radio a cab...she said no-she didn't know where she was going, having just been kicked out of the house by her parents....
i told her of phones at the next station, so she went with me to it, saw outlets where she could plug her cellphone in, and proceeded to call a friend.
i left her while i went to work; 15 minutes later she came running up to me so happy and thankful....to let me know she had a place to stay, her best friend, whose parents were friends with hers...meaning that they could probably act as intermediaries...i was so relieved, since i was struggling to imagine what kind of parents could do that to a child-especially on new years, but anytime too...
what is wrong with people....that there are those who would delight in robbing another of their dignity while callously abusing and exploiting them...that there could be children so completely ignored on perhaps the one day of magic for them....robbing them of a positive memory of christmas...perhaps forever...and what kind of parents will think nothing of their children, that they would send them into the bitter cold for no good reason, to fend for themselves in a huge and cold city of increasingly violent and nasty types....at anytime, but now too, on a night meant to bring in the future...
i was left to hurt and bleed for these individuals...seemed no one else would...
