Cinderella Santa

Chapter 1    

      December fourth in Fort Worth Texas. The Christmas season is in full swing. It’s two in the morning and a forty something white woman is wandering the streets with a large bottle of wine. The bottle of forgetfulness she carries is just about done for. She is five foot eight inches tall, slightly heavy build, shoulder length gray, mixed with disheveled white hair. She’s dressed in layers of clothes to stay warm. The first two layers go down to her ankles. She wears many different patterns and colors with no attention to style, mostly flannel with assorted plaid patterns. She has the street version of tennis shoes. They were white but now the shoes are all beat up and scuffed beyond recognition. Even in her drunken stupor she knows the night shelter for the homeless has been closed for hours.

      This woman is Samantha Coley, everyone calls her Sam. She’s homeless and on her own. She roams the streets until the alcohol takes over and consciousness is lost. This way she can lie down and sleep until the next day arrives or she’s dead from the alcohol, or the cold. She could possibly even be killed by some other crazy homeless person’s hand. The percentage of homeless wino females is small. She’s at a higher risk of assault than her male counterparts. She somehow manages to make it through the endless days and nights.

      She isn’t feeling any pain at this point. It must be this way because late nighttime is the worst for Sam, or any homeless person. During the waking hours, during the daytime, a homeless person can at least feel like a regular citizen. Everybody is out and about doing something, but in the late night or early morning hours there is no place to go or no place to hide. For regular people the late night and early morning hours are a time for the soul to refresh. It is a time for deep sleep in security and coziness. Sam doesn’t get this quiet, relaxing sleep. She doesn’t feel the security and coziness most people feel in their nice warm homes. Alcohol is the one ingredient that helps her cope with the lack of sleep she will get this night, or any other night.

      Sam staggers down Commerce Street and heads towards the Water Gardens. They’re located at the south edge of the downtown area. The Water Gardens are a city park with several large waterfalls and are a big tourist attraction. She concentrates on walking like a regular person, but still has trouble maintaining a straight line. An older drunk, in worse shape than Sam, walks past her going the opposite way asking for a handout. “Hey man, ya got a dollar I can borrow.”

      Sam is drunk enough she becomes perturbed at the request. She hesitates but then her real personality takes over and she begins digging for some change. As she’s digging in her pockets she sways back and forth. She finally pulls out a quarter and a dime. She slowly hands them to the old drunk, “Thass all I got.” She has a little more money but needs it for tomorrow.

      The old drunk, swaying himself, reaches out and takes the money, “Thanks darlin.” He then staggers off. 

      After finishing off her bottle, she becomes a specter of a human being. She is alive and on this planet, but cannot consciously relate to normal life. Sam is now prepared for the most difficult time of the night. She enters the Water Gardens and begins looking for a suitable place to lie down. The sky is clear, and the temperature is in the high 30’s, which can make for an uncomfortable night’s sleep. The wine is really kicking in good now. Sam is staggering and about to fall. There are many cubbyholes and secluded areas in the Water Gardens. That makes the Water Gardens a favorite place for the homeless drunks to sleep it off.

      Sam finds a somewhat secluded little area but doesn’t really know what she’s doing and just lays down in the soft dirt of a flowerbed. She passes out and has dreams she can’t remember the next morning, about her days as a youth growing up in Austin Texas. She dreams of happier days when she was married and had a family. There was a beautiful girl and a younger son who was a mama’s boy. Her husband was a powerful lawyer and politician. She was well educated, speaking five languages. She had a sister who was deaf, and Sam knew sign language. They had a great life, so she thought.

      The family life was not to be. Her husband met a younger woman and fell in love. The husband began to gaslight Sam. He was so influential he had her committed to an asylum for psychiatric treatment. She absorbed the rigors of the asylum and was in there for many months. She came out a different person. When she was released the husband had gotten a divorce and ran off with the young woman. He took the kids, all the money and sold the house. No one would help her, and she ended up on the streets. Fortunately, she can’t really remember the dreams of the night. The family memories were good days for her, and she wants to go back there, but the place and time are gone. After such a devastating blow all the way around she plans on wallowing in a drunken euphoria until it is time for her to die.

      The wine cures the four AM blues. Four AM is the time it gets the quietest. You realize you are totally alone. No shelter, no family, no friends, nothing. It’s a scary feeling when the cold sets in. The wine does the trick though, it knocks you out through this time of the morning. The problem is you need the wine every night. After a while, you begin to need wine all the time. You keep needing more wine. Thus, you become a wino.

      During the night Sam’s body reacts to the cold weather and she curls up into a tight fetal position. The hours pass and the sun rises, warming the Texas air. She has made it through another night. She starts to stir slightly, loosening up from her tight sleeping position, and subconsciously hearing the voices of police officers waking the winos. Most of the police were pretty good about waking the drunks. They walk around telling everyone to get up and get going. Finally, two officers find Sam. One of the officers’ nudges her with his night stick. “Sam, hey Sam, wake up. You need to move.” The officers know this wino as a nice lady who doesn’t cause any problems.

      Sam is starting to move more now. She looks up and sees Tracy and Fitzgerald, two cops that’re good to her. They’re downtown Fort Worth Police foot patrol. They’ve given her money and helped her in the past and she has never forgotten it.

      “Sorry y’all, I’ll get going here in a minute.” She said as she was getting up.

      As Tracy slowly turns to walk off, “It’s okay Sam, take your time.”

      Sam stood up as the officers walked off to another part of the park to wake more overnight Water Garden patrons. She sat down on a ledge by one of the main waterfalls for a second. She noticed regular citizens starting to come into the gardens. She buried her face in her hands trying to feel somewhat coherent. She knew the officers would be back, so she had better leave. Suddenly she heard a voice and jerked her head out of his hands, “Excuse me Santa.”

      There was a young girl standing there, maybe eleven or twelve years old and cute as a button. She was dressed oddly in bright red pants with a red shirt and a white jacket. It was all topped off with a furry bright red baseball cap with the initials SC on it. She had a small, upturned nose and a great big smile.

      Sam took the scene all in for few seconds. Going from face in hands to looking at the little girl was like an explosion into Christmas. She was still dazed from everything she’d been through overnight and was trying to become conscious. She tried to focus and was sitting, staring when she noticed a strange glow around her head. She then mumbled, “What did you call me?”

      “I said excuse me Sam.”

      “No, no, I thought you said Santa.”

      “No, Sam you dropped this piece of paper out of your pocket. I think you need it back.”

      Sam was now coming around and decided it was time to go to the homeless shelter, “I don’t know what you’re talking about kid. And how did you know my name?”

      “It’s right here on the paper.” She read it, “Samantha Coley, winning lottery numbers six, nine, thirty three, thirty five, thirty six, forty eight.” She then held the paper out for Sam to take.

      As Sam took the paper from the girl electricity went between their bodies. She was now wide awake and staring at the girl. She started looking around the Water Gardens wondering what was going on, “Where are your parents.”

      “They’re right over there. I have to go. Don’t forget to play those numbers, bye.”

      The little girl scurried off through one of the many cubby holes in the gardens and was gone. Sam looked at the paper for a second and put it in her pocket. She finally pulls herself up and exits the Water Gardens walking towards the Union Gospel Mission. This is the shelter she stays at when she’s not drunk. During the day they allow people to come and get something to eat, look for work, and get counseling, if you’re sober. Sam is well known at the shelter. She’s considered one of the more intelligent and likable people there.