It’s my pleasure to share a guest post by Gina Cheyne for the blog tour organised by Rachel’s Random Resources. Over to you, Gina.
Growing up, I lived near Lincoln’s Inn in London. One day a homeless tented city appeared and for some months it was allowed to continue, but eventually, the lawyers who worked around the square could no longer bear the sight of such destitution and called the police. One day it was there: the next it was gone and the park was once again free for lawyers and their families to stroll in peace.
This short event had a long term effect on me. I always knew I would at some point write about homelessness. So, I decided I must discover for myself what it was like to live on the streets.
However, I was still at school and living with my parents, who were not keen on the idea of their daughter spending even one night on the streets. Then I saw a charity advertising for people to ‘experience a night of homelessness’. The charity offered two days where ‘volunteers’ could do a Sponsored Sleep-out to raise money for the hostel. This was a perfectly explainable event for my parents and clearly completely safe.
I chose the first date. On the appointed day, I turned up at the park near Euston Station (at that time a rundown area full of homeless people). There was no one in the park, the normal homeless having been cleared away for the event, but I was early, so I put my sleeping bag down and waited.
After about an hour the organiser turned up. He saw me sitting on my sleeping bag and approached me cautiously.
‘Have you come for the event?’ he asked biting his lower lip.
‘Yes.’
‘Ah.’ He looked around, as though hoping I had brought some friends. But I was completely alone, thinking this would give me a real experience.
‘Most people,’ he said, ‘are coming tomorrow.’
‘Yes, but I’m not free tomorrow.’
He stared at me. Possibly thinking that were I a real homeless person I would be free every day.
‘I’ve got sponsors,’ I said.
This apparently clinched the deal. He could hardly tell the sponsors I was sent home for being the only volunteer.
He looked at my sleeping bag. ‘Is that all you’ve got.’
‘Yes.’
‘Right. OK, I’ll be back in a minute.’
He disappeared. When he returned it was clear he had been at the local phone box (this was long before mobiles) desperately looking for reinforcements. However, he didn’t find any. Apparently, all the volunteers preferred to camp out tomorrow, with the others.
‘Right,’ he said, ‘it’s just you and me then.’
‘OK.’ I said.
Later, it occurred to me that I had inadvertently put the organiser in a rather difficult position. I was around seventeen years old at the time. He was probably in his forties. When he volunteered to do a sleep-out he presumably did not imagine this would also involve protecting a naive young woman. But today it did.
It got dark and we lay down in the park next to a tree. Even though this was August, it soon got very, very cold. I could not sleep. After an hour he got up again and said ‘stay here. Scream if anyone approaches you. I’ll be back shortly.’
After a few minutes he came back with four or five cardboard boxes. Even then, I wondered if he’d bought them from the homeless on the next door street. He handed these to me.
‘If you are going to get any sleep at all, you’ll need these.’
They didn’t smell too good, but they did make the ground marginally softer, and it was slightly warmer.
So, the night passed. Neither of us got much sleep.
As it was summer it was light around 4am. My protector noticed I was awake.
‘You awake?’
‘Yes.’
‘I think you have definitely fulfilled your sponsorship,’ he said. ‘Shall I sign your form?’
My form signed, I returned home and collected my sponsorship money. I had a bath and went to bed, exhausted!
Now, after many changes of home, I have finally written that book.
Thank so much for this, Gina. An amazing story.
Why would an airline pilot exchange a world of comfort for life on the streets?
In 2006, Miranda meets an itinerant in the wood, she takes him home. He refuses to stay, desperate to return to the streets. Miranda gives him some money and forgets the incident.
Fifteen years later, the SeeMs Detective Agency is investigating an abandoned house and discovers a homeless man was found there: murdered.
No one knows who the dead man is or how he died, and, with one hundred and fifty unidentified street deaths per year, no one has time to find out.
But, the SeeMs Detectives have both time and a client.
Their investigation takes them into a surprising world of aviation, night-clubs and the homeless.
What they discover threatens one of their team. Can they save their colleague before the homeless man’s killer strikes again?
Purchase Links ~ Amazon UK / Amazon US
Gina Cheyne is a retired helicopter pilot who has lived and worked in many countries. At present she Lives in Chaos, although she originally came from Erehwon. Her schooling was so bad she had to be re-schooled by animals. She loves to laugh. Plays tennis badly, bridge slightly better, golf even worse. She is exceptionally good at walking, unless it is muddy, then she is good at reading.
Social Media Links ~ Website / Instagram / Facebook / Reedsy
betweenthelinesbookblog.com 