The grass was soft beneath our backs we lay -- a company of four strangers brought together by circumstance. People's park, our meething place, a square of land our parents had told each of us about; a square they helped create only to have it stolen away from them and transformed -- another stony reminder of the american dream: everything belongs under the feet of man and his creations. We lay there, four rays seemingly ejected from the trunk of the only tree left large enough to shade us. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- North: M'shel was strong, black, proud; Billie Holiday meets Sinead O'Conner at a punk rock concert. She stood and offered a tale: "Happiness fills the emptiness that was my childhood; my parents were well off and I was never without. Bliss was all that I knew until the fateful day I joined so many others in the institution of the private american educational system: a black girl in a white world I became the void so many others never wanted to fill. My callous teachers gave perfectly indifferent marks and sent me on my way. Friendship was a word without meaning for me eleventh year english brought Kristen a white girl ostracized as well for what she could not control. Alice loved Jane as they both loved K and they tought me about family. From them I learned that love is more than gift-giving. "Every day brought renewed passion to our sisterhood I loved K and she loved me. My parents were not so happy as me. Father lost his job; something was stolen, and he was indifferent mother wanted him to fight and later left the pacifist man to his grief. What is in a colour hatred, deceit, ignorace, incapacitance these are all learned behaviours contrary to popular belief. "K and I lost touch when father moved us away and father and I lost touch when I moved myself. "Three months and I regret nothing food is everywhere and money, a song away and shelter on every corner. The world is kind to those she does not know. Every tomorrow brings another chance to find myself; another decision to make." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- West: A Young boy was to her left: naively cute, though perhaps a bit pretentious. He called himself Deuil, a name he chose to "represent his situation." He spoke next, though only after the silence he claimed to love so dearly had become too overbearing. "There was nothing for me at home: no one cared for me; my friends but used me; and school only clouded my thoughts with bits of knowledge I'll never use. "Leaving home was the obvious choice, and April one brought the destination: 'Rozz Williams hangs himself in his L.A. appartment.' Oklahoma to San Francisco to L.A. I only stopped here after seeing this tree; it beckoned me toward it -- a beacon in the darkness. "Money has been a problem, but I'll start a band in Hollywood. I won't make much, but I'll survive; and besides, music is more than money." The young boy seemed to have much to say, but was interrupted by a cough and a few words from his right. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- South: Sarah was soft. Years of bruising abuse had left her so, though it seemed that her bruises might glow with her eagerness to tell the story of her misfortunes. "I used to dream of being an astronaut. Though I really only wanted to get away the world is cruel and even the moon is remote to a girl whose eyes are bruised. "My first memory is from age four: Disneyland -- behind a restroom near a seemingly huge dragon-coaster. My step-father is beating me. I'm afraid to scream: I know he'll only beat me harder if I attract attention. I bite my tongue I feel each blow both on my back and in my mouth. When he stops I swallow and stand; clearing my mouth of blood and stretching the painful welts. "He buys me icecream and bounces me on his leg -- this tortured child seems part of a loving family." Such a young girl could never deserve such treatment though I sensed that she only sought attention through this depiction of her pathos. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- East: I addressed the group as an outsider as one who understood without experience. "I know each of you, I know your lives as I know my own. I am not sorry to say that i do not posess your experiences. I do not want to. However, I have a past that none of you have known I had a pleasant adolescense and childhood. My family showed me love and raised me as best they could. I have been each of you still however, I have been lost, alone, mistreated everyone has. I grew up with support and I usually tried to accept it. I am here because I choose to be, and I am happiest here. I left college my second year, under special agreement my scholarship would be held over while I took two years to study human behaviour. I have determined only two things since I left: home is where you're happy and anyone can do anything if they fight hard enough. I return in one week to write a paper about things I do not believe so that others will leave the streets alone and pity the homeless more. What I would like to write about is freedom about people with no identities people with no responsibilities people who go when and where they want people who live. In truth, the homeless that I know have better homes than the richest people in the world. "A man who owns nothing owns himself more wholly than any other, and a society filled with such men is filled not with homeless and beggars, but with kings. For however long you may make the streets your life, remember that no matter where you might wander, you can make that your home."