drifters and strangers

This thursday night I was closing up at Puccino's. it was just a few minutes before 9 PM, and two middle aged men walked in. They ordered their pizza, and they were really friendly. Of course, as part of my job, I was friendly to them, too. As I was checking out one guy at the register, he began asking me about beer prices. "Sir, to be honest with you, I have no idea what beer costs around here." He looked at me with a strange look in his eye. Then, he hesitated. He had something on his mind. He asked me, "Sir, are you a Christian?" I thought this was odd.
"Yeah. Yeah, I am."
Then, he asked me where I went to church. He said, "I can tell you're a Christian. You just have a certain look on your face. you seem to live a really clean life."
Crazy, huh? In the middle of LA, far from the Bible belt, this was a strange occurance. But, an encouraging one nonetheless.
So, later that night, I returned to my apartment. My roommate Andy was there with our friend Benj. Andy had rented from Odyssey video a Japanese zombie musical. I'm not making this up. So, we watched the last chunk of it, then we set off to Odyssey to return it. The returns have to be back by midnight, so we just made it in time. We returned to the apartment. My friend Benj does a lot of extra work in film and television. He was sharing some interesting stories with us. We were watching Conan O'Brien, having a delightful time. Around 1 am, we were about to call it a night.
There was a soft knock at our apartment door.
Now, I must clarify at this point that apartment buildings in LA are surrounded with gated fences. So, the only real possibility when someone knocks on your door is that it's either a neighbor, or the UPS man. My first thought was that it was our neighbor downstairs and we were being too loud, or something. I looked through the peep hole, and it was the figure of a man. So, I thought it was the man who lives directly below us.
I opened the door, and it was definitely not our neighbor. It was a scraggly looking white man in his mid to late twenties. He looked like he hadn't showered in days, and his grimey hand was covered with blood. He stammered, "Hey, man,...I'm locked out of my car. Mind if I use your phone to call my Mom?"
Um...ok. I handed him our apartment phone, and he began making a call. I told him he could come in. Don't ask me why I invited this guy into our home. I was tired, and not thinking clearly.
He walked in, and while he was on the phone, asked if he could wash his hand off in our bathroom. He went in the bathroom, washed his hand off, and came back out. He left a message to someone he apparently thought was his mother. I asked him what his name was, and he told me his name was Belinda. He sat down on our couch, and asked if he could stay long enough to wait for someone to call him back. I agreed, and we continued watching Conan. My roommate Doug came home, and started up a conversation with "Belinda." This guy told Doug that he was a Chiropracter. He then began telling Doug about humans floating in water as the most effective way to expand their muscles.
I was beginning to get the feeling this guy was someone who shouldn't be in our apartment.
He asked if he could borrow a lighter, then he went back into our bathroom and shut the door.
To make a long story short, the guy asked for a ride at 1:40 in the morning to some house near Warner Brothers. Benj and Andy drove him to some place in West Hollywood and dropped him off. He was clearly a druggie who had no idea where he was. He was also high as a kite and I'm surprised he could string sentences together.
We think maybe he jumped the fence of our apartment complex. Or, a door was left propped open that he walked through. I'm glad the guy was harmless.
I also saw a black man in his mid forties yesterday in West Hollywood with kakhi pants hiked up to his chest, no shirt, a little radio, and a stroller full of clothes. He was on the sidewalk, dancing to "My Perrogative" by Bobby Brown for an imaginary audience.