Alexandra
12/19/2018 - 18:23
I’m going to Syntagma station by Metro. In a stopover, a very young girl enters and sits across from me, wearing her black coat, holding a bag and a plastic glass with coins.
She asks for some money from other passengers to get food..
Then she begins to monologue: "Being homeless is considered marginalized by the people, they don't trust you" and continues to me "I didn't catch the common meal today and now I have to raise money to get food, and it's cold, sir" she tells me.
"What's your name" I ask
"Alexandra"
"Where are you sleeping Alexandra?"
"In an old abandoned factory’s building. Do you have a roof over your head? ”
"Yes I have"
"You're lucky… I've put boxes and made my space, but it's cold. I've been sleeping on the wall for two days now because it's flooded by the rain and my cardboard boxes are broken. On the other side of the building it has little warmer places because the sun hits it but it’s very noisy from the boulevard and it bothers me, I can't sleep. It’s wet everywhere anyway. I live with my brother and my fiancé. They do everything to make me feel good, they take care of me"
"I will go to the Syntagma station; if you want we can go and get you something to eat"
"I won't say no to food, thank you"
"My other brother is in prison and things are not easy, we need to find money and go to him to pay for the gangs in there, you know, otherwise they will cut his ass... People around don't trust me because I am homeless, but I never chose it... They are all cold and stuck on their cell phones" she said, making a funny grimace, holding an invisible cell phone stuck in her face.
In a little while we disembarked to Syntagma station. We go up the stairs and go through the ticket bars hurriedly, the inspector asks us if we have a ticket, I take out my own, I show it to him on the move to avoid Alexandra. We go out to the square where it was full of Christmas lanterns and a big ugly metal tree with led lighting.
"I’ve never celebrated Christmas and I have no appetite now"
