Trail of Secrets(64)
“This is my first time to volunteer. My name is Callie.”
“It’s good to have you here, Callie. I’m Herman. Herman Miller. But my friends all call me Champ.”
Callie’s gaze raked the gaunt figure in the faded pants and shirt that seemed to hang on his small frame. “Champ?”
He chuckled. “Yeah. It’s a holdover from my Golden Gloves days.” He glanced down at his plate. “But I expect a pretty lady like you don’t have no time to hear about that.”
Callie shook her head. A man next to Herman picked up his empty plate and rose to his feet. When he’d walked away, Callie dropped down in the chair, set her coffeepot on the table and smiled at Herman. “No, you’re wrong. I’d love to hear your story.”
He glanced around the room. “Everybody here got a story, and ev’ry one of them is just about alike. Mine ain’t much different.”
“Then tell me.”
He took a drink of coffee and stared at the cup when he set it back on the table. A faraway look settled in his eyes, and Callie wondered what thoughts were running through his mind. “Yeah, I used to box in the Golden Gloves. Thought I’d make it to the big leagues, but that wasn’t to be. Vietnam got in the way and ended that dream.”
“I’m sorry.”
He shook his head. “No need to feel bad. I came home in one piece. A lot of guys didn’t. When I got back, all I wanted was a little neighborhood grocery store. I worked hard and I finally got it. Things were going good until my wife died, and I was alone.”
“So you had no children?”
“One son, but he took off. Don’t know where he is. He didn’t want nothing to do with that little grocery store, but I loved it. It was all I had. Then these guys came by, and all that changed.”
Callie straightened in her chair. “How did it change?”
“At first, they sweet-talked me, told me they were gonna take care of me, offer me protection from what might happen to an old man trying to run a business by himself. I told them I didn’t need no protection, but they said I didn’t have a choice. I had to pay them every week if I wanted to stay in business.”
“So what did you do?”
“I started to pay them, but it was never enough. They kept raising the price. When it got so much I couldn’t pay, I told them I was through. I wasn’t making enough money to live on. That night I woke up in my apartment that was over the store, and I smelled smoke. I was lucky to get out of the building alive, but everything I owned burned in the fire that night. I’d been short on money from making those ‘protection payments,’ and I’d gotten behind on paying my insurance. At my age nobody wanted to hire me, and I had nowhere to live. Next thing I know I’m on the streets and sleeping on a concrete floor in a deserted warehouse most nights.”
Callie’s heart ached for the man, and tears stood in her eyes. She reached out and squeezed Herman’s arm. “I am so sorry for what happened to you, Herman.”
His eyes sparkled for a moment, and he smiled. “Champ. I told you my friends call me Champ, and you’re the first friend I’ve made in a long time.” He looked down at his plate and cleared his throat. “Now if you don’t mind, I need to finish eating. They gonna start drawing names for tonight’s beds in a little while, and I’d like to get one. It sure would be nice to have one night on a mattress instead of a cardboard box on a concrete floor.”