TNT ... Chicago 11
1 Once you make a "big" move -- the kind that brings upheaval to everything you thought you knew ... to everything that defined you ... to everything you stood for -- the "little" moves are so much easier to handle. 2 "Don't sweat the small stuff," H reminded himself, as the train pulled in to Chicago's Union Station on New Year's Eve.
3 Sure, he had made a bit of a life for himself back in Detroit since arriving the previous April, but the orders from the boss were clear. 4 Get to Chicago -- and get there before midnight on the last day of the year. Detroit to Chicago was a little move and was therefore something easy.
5 He'd miss the gang he was leaving, for sure. 6 They had been so good to him since he had first arrived in Motor City, unfamiliar with the lay of the land -- or with much of how anything really worked. 7 He had fit in immediately with the group of homeless people down by the waterfront, and it wasn't long before a bunch of them bonded and struck out to find an abandoned home in the rough part of town to fix up just enough for them to have shelter -- and fellowship.
8 H was a natural born leader -- so long as found the right kind of followers. 9 Networking was the answer to everything, and it didn't take long before a friend of one of his new friends even got him a job. 10 Nothing fancy, of course, but bringing in some extra money to support the communal living by working as a medial receptionist at a podiatrist's office assured him a safe space in the hierarchy of his group.
11 All that he had done for them was also the reason why they had so easily banded together to gather the rest of the money he had needed for one way train ticket to Chitown. 12 "I will be back," he had assured them. 13 "None of us can know the day or hour ... but I will return."
14 Business was business. 15 As he disembarked from the train and threw his dirty knapsack over his shoulder, he knew that the future depended on what he did now that he had arrived in Chicago. 16 He had a mission at which he must not fail. 17 It was all he could think about as he walked the blocks from one train station to another.
18 He decided to start his new temporary life the same way he had done upon setting foot in Detroit. 19 He got his ticket and stared at the map of the public transportation, determined to decipher which one of the colors would take him closest to Lake Michigan.
20 The coast curved upwards, closer and closer to the Red Line. 21 He traced his finger from the water's edge at a place called Osterman Beach and he determined the shortest path from an el stop was to a place that he wasn't exactly sure how to pronounce. 22 Saying it out loud didn't matter. 23 He just had to be on the lookout for signs for Bryn Mawr.
24 There were chimes. 25 And an automated voice warning "doors closing". 26 He jumped off the platform and into the train with no time to spare.
27 As soon as the red line made it beyond the downtown stops and started to fill up with revelers, H began to feel at ease. 28 He was amongst his people -- the hipsters on the train reminded him of the hipsters he had left back in Detroit. 29 Funny thing -- because of the company he kept -- many of the people he met assumed the H stood for hipster.
30 It didn't. 31 It was a middle initial. 32 He never gave out his first name because it was accompanied by way too much baggage.
33 At one of the stops, he stood so a drunken girl could have his seat, and he smiled as he swayed along with the to and fro of the car as it tried to make up time speeding between stops, seeing as how so many people were making use of it for the holiday that the times spent on the platform at the station were slightly longer than the schedule was supposed to allow. 34 Standing in the aisle also put him closer to the map in the display above the door so he could more easily count down how close he was to where he wanted to disembark.
35 Soon enough, the train was braking in a place where he could see the sign proclaiming it to be Bryn Mawr. 36 He exited, looked both ways to find a stairwell, and found himself on the street. 37 He couldn't see the lake from that exact point, but he knew he'd have a few blocks to walk from the map he had researched. 38 Not sure of which way to go, he turned *each* way and chose the path that was *into* the wind.
39 He passed a church on his left and crossed a big intersection before walking underneath a bridge of a heavily traveled road. 40 The park he was expecting was indeed in front of him. 41 He saw signs that it closed at dusk, but it wasn't gated and no one was around. 42 For the first time, he doubted his strategy about hooking up with some homeless as he was certain that the bridge would have attracted the people he was hoping to meet.
43 "Maybe there was another structure closer to the water -- through the trees and away from the lights of the cars exiting that highway above the bridge," he guessed as he got a closer look at his surroundings.
44 He found a structure -- a pier, jutting out into the water -- and he found his first person. 45 He could make out the shadow of someone that was walking back toward the beach -- walking toward him. 46 As his eyes adjusted and the individual came closer, he noticed the long flowing white beard ... and then he saw the face on which it was growing.
47 "*What* are YOU doing here?" he asked, already knowing what the answer would be.
