Homelessness in the light of the 7-Eleven

Lost in the big city
Toronto, ON
August 2019
This photo originally shared on Instagram

This isn't quite the Boulevard of Broken Dreams, but part of me thinks it could be.

A 7-Eleven store is always a bit of a crossroads of humanity, but never more so than late at night. As the blindingly white fluorescent light spills like an oasis into the surrounding parking lot, a varied cast of characters comes and goes, each of them writing a chapter in real-time in a story that never seems to end.

I've already written in an earlier post about the middle-aged woman in the flowery dress who left her dog alone outside, so we know that one had something of a happy ending when the little pup was still there upon her return. But on this night, hers wasn't the only story playing out here.

You can just see the man in the fedora near frame-centre as he returns to his shopping cart parked under the Gatorade sign. He's been shuffling back and forth outside the front of the store for at least 15 minutes, carefully loading up and securing all his worldly possessions before walking away again in search of something else to forage.

When a posse of young kids in a brand-new Jeep Wrangler pulls up, he quickly disappears into the shadows before re-emerging after they enter the store. For some odd reason, I ponder how much the candy-apple-red Jeep must have cost, and how much this one man would need to feel secure.

Soon enough, the overly loud kids return to the Jeep and peel out of the parking lot, booming, forgettable music competing with the uniformly confident voices of young entitlement.

As silence slowly returns to the grit-covered parking lot, the fedora-wearing man returns to his cart and slowly begins pushing it away from the door before he disappears for good behind the building. I can still hear the squeak of the wheels long after he fades from view.

Haves. Have-nots. They all make their way here, eventually. Where they end up afterward is anyone's guess. That's the deal with crossroads like these.

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