<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Brian hasn\u2019t always held a Mattress Fair sign on the side of the road. Before Mattress Fair, he worked as a BB&T bank teller until his second DWI, third manic crack up and third day late to work, then he sobered up, took his Lithium and manned the Bojangles drive-thru\u2014they liked his teller experience\u2014until he relapsed and his girlfriend dumped him for a fifty-two-year-old biology professor, kicked him out of her house, and stopped giving him rides to work. Now he lives in the homeless shelter and is shuttled to work every morning by Woodrow Jennings, a high school junior who wakes early to ferry Brian and others to temp jobs before homeroom bell. Sometimes, the shelter men and women sit outside their jobs for an hour until a supervisor or manager arrives.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jimmy Ray Thomas, an ex-convict who pumped mad prison iron, is the shelter\u2019s backseat chaperone. If someone tries to grab Woodrow\u2019s neck, he\u2019ll \u201csmack \u2018em upside the head and beat the brakes off \u2018em, ain\u2019t that right, Woodrow?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, sir,\u201d Woodrow will say. \u201cDon\u2019t mess with Woodrow Jennings!\u201d<\/p>\n
The passengers will groan, sigh, and suck their teeth at the punkass bitch applying to fancy colleges.<\/p>\n
\u201cCollege boy,\u201d a man will say.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo what?\u201d Jimmy Ray will say.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want no trouble,\u201d DeQuan will say.<\/p>\n
DeQuan is the shelter\u2019s best musician and plays the raggedy donated guitars and keyboards during chapel.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe chirpy,\u201d a woman will say.<\/p>\n
\u201cGet with God and you\u2019ll chirp too!\u201d DeQuan will say.<\/p>\n
\u201cLord,\u201d another woman will say.<\/p>\n
Brian will sip his Styrofoam shelter coffee. This is every morning.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Woodrow has said, within earshot of Brian and DeQuan, that he\u2019s improving his college applications. \u201cThere\u2019s a great essay in this,\u201d he once told Pastor John, the shelter\u2019s director, in the hallway separating the bunks from the chapel, where Pastor John delivers sermons. Brian and DeQuan sat in the back pew reading King James Bibles. Brian doesn\u2019t care about God or the King James Bible but is eager to impress Pastor John, who might be a solid reference on future job applications. In a recent Wednesday sermon, Pastor John said he \u201cbelieves in the humanity of the mentally ill\u201d and equal opportunity for \u201cthe afflicted and addicted.\u201d Brian likes Pastor John\u2019s compassion and eagerness to help those less fortunate. He doesn\u2019t want to hold the Mattress Fair sign on the side of the road forever.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mattress Fair is always Woodrow\u2019s first and last stop\u2014he also transports them back to the shelter in the late afternoons, after school\u2014and whenever Brian exits the shelter\u2019s blue Aerostar, DeQuan yells out the window, \u201cBlowout clearance!\u201d DeQuan says he can\u2019t help it, that it\u2019s something in the two words stacked on the orange-and-black sign that sound like music. DeQuan has seen the sign because Brian sits in the folding metal chair holding it until the van pulls into the shopping center\u2019s parking lot. By then, Brian\u2019s ass, hands, arms, and shoulders are sore and he\u2019s thinking of all the fuckwads who\u2019ve taunted him throughout the day. Often he\u2019s considered hurling the sign in the road, or jabbing the pole through a windshield, but then he\u2019ll think of Pastor John delivering one of his Wednesday or Sunday sermons and discussing the importance of remaining humble, or something like that\u2014some life lesson that reminds him he can\u2019t fuck up anymore, that he\u2019s almost out of chances, that hurling the sign in the road or jabbing the pole through a windshield would be a bad idea, even if the fuckwads deserve it, so he\u2019ll close his eyes, breathe deeply, count to ten and think of Pastor John at the pulpit.<\/p>\n
\u201cBlowout clearance!\u201d DeQuan yells, craning his head out the window until Jimmy Ray closes it.<\/p>\n
Brian watches the van pull back onto the strip surrounded by fast food and chain stores, then peeks through Mattress Fair\u2019s glass to see if Terry, the manager, is inside to hand him the sign and chair, but he\u2019s not. The store opens in an hour and Terry is probably kissing his wife goodbye or putting his kids on the cheese box. So Brian sits cross-legged on the sidewalk and waits\u2014to weather the fuckwads, to do Pastor John proud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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