The word from the street
TONY
“One of my regulars, she’s a nice lady, she said she’d bake me a cake for my birthday. Then I had to whisper to her husband afterwards that I really didn’t want to have 60 candles on the cake, if you know what I mean. Anyway, he said he’d make sure about the candles.”
TONY
“Oh Phil, you should tell the blog readers that I’m having my birthday on Thursday [Feb. 26th]. You’ll see, I’ll be on the sidewalk with my special birthday balloon and everything.
“Sixty, it’s pretty freaky.”
PHILIP
“When are you going to Vancouver?”
TONY
“Well I’ve got to make some money first. The bus is pretty expensive, but I think it’s less expensive than the plane.
“Anyway, my nephew says he can get some work for me so I can make some extra money for the trip.”
PHILIP
“So when are you going?”
TONY
“Depends. I’ve got to get the money first. But I can tell you I need a holiday — haven’t had one in ten years. Plus I’ve never seen the ocean.”
PHILIP
“Never in your whole life?”
TONY
“Nope. Never have; always wanted to. This is my chance; I’ve gotta do it.”
PHILIP
“Hey, where’d your chair go?”
TONY
“The city took it. They cut the lock off the light post and took my chair away. I don’t know, maybe someone complained. Anyway, I’m back to sitting on on one of those milk cases.
“You know what they say: ‘You win a few, you a lose few. Well,this time I lost my seat.”
PHILIP
“Remember that nice black coat you showed me a few months back. You know, the one that made you look like Darth Vader? How come you don’t wear it anymore?”
TONY
“It looked too nice … made people think I didn’t need the money, if you know what I mean.”
PHILIP
“You know it’s a holiday on Monday?”
TONY
“Yeah, that’s that new holiday, Family Day, isn’t it?
PHILIP
“Ooops. Sorry. I shouldn’t have mentioned it.”
TONY
“Don’t worry. It’s not like I don’t think about it.”
TONY
“I think it’s time for a holiday for me.”
PHILIP
“I’ve never heard you say that before … where are you going?”
TONY
“I’m gonna go out to Vancouver. I’ve got a friend and he’s going out there for a job with a bus line. He figures I could get some work there with him too. Anyway, I haven’t had a holiday in a while.”
TONY
“I feel like hell today. I’ve got the runs, everything.”
PHILIP
“Food poisoning?”
TONY
“No, it’s the chicken. I’ve gotta stop eating chicken.”
PHILIP
“Did you eat bad chicken, I mean chicken that’s gone bad?”
TONY
“No. It’s just regular chicken. Nothing wrong with it except it’s making me sick.”
PHILIP
“How could regular chicken make you sick? I’ve never heard of that. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone having an allergy to chicken.”
TONY
“Well maybe I’m the first one.”
TONY
“They say it’s going up to 6 degrees tomorrow,. I’ll tell, you, when the when it get’s warm, I get those springtime feekings I got 40 years ago, if you know what I mean. You can tell Valentine’s Day is coming.”
Homeless Man Speaks 