When Lone Wolves Form A Pack

Tags: anniversary, dorm, homeless shelter, veterans shelter, military, Arco, gas station, Arconians, lone wolf, crackheads, killers, expungement, expunging felonies, chaplan, multiple personality, The White Rhini, The Bear, Chollo Jook, Ironweed, Professor, muckety muck, factotum, jarvis, marquisdejolie, Revver, viral video, internet video, Hollywood, Hollywoodland, Inglewood

Today marks my one month anniversary here at the dorm for prognathos-jawed men. One month. Seems a lot longer. Already the Arco gas station I used to work at and the Arconians I used to work with seem dreary, tepid memories.

It's funny. At the Arco, I had to deal with all sorts of crackheads and felons . . . as customers. Now, here at the vets' dorm, I'm living with them.

No, that's not quite right. At the Arco it was current, active duty crackheads. Here at the dorm, it's recovering, ex-crackheads. It's much better here. Here is where all the lone wolves like me, the military ones, form a pack.

The guy sitting next to me right now, Mike, a friendly, fiftyish gentleman whose gray goatee makes him look a little like a gentle, kindly Lenin (the Russian, not John), just got back from court today. He finally got the last expungement he needed completed. He had cut open some guy who had pissed him off and pulled the guy's intestines out and THEN started stompin the dude . . . ten, fifteen years ago and today he finally got that taken off his jacket. His first offense after coming back from Nam was opening up a bar bouncer's neck. That one was expunged a couple of years ago.

Mike gave me this information this morning as we were smoking cigarettes together in the alley behind the dorm. He said it in a kind of matter of fact, yet 'aw shucks, wasn't I kinda stupid?' way . . . the way REAL trained killers talk. Not bragging. Not acting tough. Just 'it was what it was and I paid for it, so what?' low key kind of way.

One month. Hmph. Doesn't feel like I've accomplished much. The chaplan's got his eye on me. He may have caught a whiff of The White Rhino or Chollo Jook or The Bear or Ironweed and he's tallying up the personalities in my head . . . maybe.

One of the big muckety mucks, a woman who appears to be several rungs up the food chain from my case worker ( who reports to my case manager who reports up to someone who reports up until it gets to her ) . . . has started calling me "Professor" when she sees me in the hallway. THAT sounds like trouble. Hmmm. Maybe she's . . . Ah, the computer room monitor has called 'Time'. Gotta sign off. We only get certain select hours on the computers here.