We have five professional deadbeats in our small town. We used to have one. Well, maybe it is one and a half.
The one for real deadbeat is "Chris." Everyone knows Chris. Chris is mentally ill and he belongs in an institution. Thanks to the ACLU he cannot be confined in an institution against his will. So, instead of being cared for by mental health professionals he wanders between one end of our town and the other. Some people take pity on him and try to help him but, sadly, he is beyond help. He can be given clothing or money or cigarettes. If you give him money he will use it for food. Drugs are useless to him. His brain is permanently damaged.
There is another one...the half a deadbeat. I don't know her name. I'm not sure anyone does. I say that she is half a deadbeat because she will sort of work for her handouts. She sweeps sidewalks and sort of washes windows...stuff like that. She also belongs in an institution and is almost entirely beyond help.
The other three are new in town. The first one showed up in the spring. He is the "well dressed" deadbeat. He wears clean and new clothing. Nice jackets. Nice shoes. His usual place is standing at the outlet to the grocery store parking lot with a sign that says, "Need food. God bless." Sometimes he mixes it up with a "Need work" sign but I've never seen him anywhere but at this or one of his other stations. Sometimes he will be at an intersection with a traffic light and I will get to stop within a few feet. I will stare at him and he will quickly avert his eyes. He knows what I'm thinking about him, that he's a total deadbeat. I watched him leave the grocery store parking lot one day and, having a few minutes to spare, I followed him. I broke off when I saw him heading into one of the surrounding condos.
Toward the end of the summer we have had a couple of more professional deadbeats show up. One is a young male who does seem to be a drug addicted person. The other one is a grossly overweight female who also appears to be working on a drug habit judging by the way she is dressed and how she carries herself.
So...three new deadbeats this year in my small community. I think that it might be a sign of things to come. I think that it's entirely possible that we will get a few more in the next year although I am not sure how many deadbeats a small community can support. Deadbeats are like mimes. How many mimes can a community support before people start smacking them in the head?
Anyway, it was sort of comical about three weeks ago when all three of the new deadbeats were working the same intersection for some reason. I was kind of hoping that they might start fighting or something. They do seem to travel on foot. I've never seen any of them in a car.
As I said earlier, it is almost without a doubt that the "pros" are on welfare. The two that I mentioned at the beginning of this post...I'm not sure. Neither of them has any kind of a permanent address. They are usually seen "camping" on the outskirts of town or in the forest. I have no idea at all how they survive the winter. I feel sorry for them because, as I said, they are crazy and thanks to the ACLU assholes, beyond help. But the professional deadbeats I have no pity for.