Chapter Eighteen
The Doctor didn't need to sleep so he stayed up and kept watch over his lover and his new friend. He kept glancing back at her and noticed she was fast asleep. It impressed him that she was able to just sleep with no fear of being harmed and after putting up with Suri, he was glad they found a decent person out on the streets.
When it neared six, the Doctor noticed that Jenny stirred and was starting to wake up. He figured her internal clock was now used to getting up this early since he knew she couldn't see the clock from her vantage point. He gently prodded Rose awake when Jenny got up and stretched. Jenny walked past the Doctor to check the time and he noticed she was a young Asian woman. Jenny turned and smiled at him.
"Morning," she said to him and Rose.
"Morning," the Doctor said while Rose sat up and stretched her back muscles.
He got up with Rose while Jenny walked back to retrieve her backpack. They put theirs on while she carried hers by the handle. They walked out of the doorway and Jenny told them to wait while she put her backpack on the ground. She opened it up, took out some toilet paper and unrolled a bit of it onto her hand. She put the remainder back, zipped up her backpack and the Doctor and Rose watched while she walked to a trash dumpster that was between the parking garage and a lawyer's office. She walked up to the dumpster and walked around the side furthest from the Doctor and Rose. They watched while she looked around, searching for something then she ducked down. They heard a hissing sound and Rose put her hand over her mouth, trying not to laugh when a stream of urine suddenly ran out from behind the dumpster. Then Jenny stood up, looking down for a moment and then she threw the crumpled up toilet paper into the open dumpster. She then looked down for a few more seconds before she came around the dumpster and walked back to them.
"Sorry, couldn't hold it in," she said to them as she grabbed her backpack and put it on her back.
"That was rather bold of you," the Doctor said, amused, while they walked across the parking lot.
"Well, unlike you, I can't just discreetly whip it out and piss in a bush. When you gotta go, you gotta go. I just made sure that you and Rose were the only ones watching before I did it. The bus station opens up at 7 and I do use their bathroom but I couldn't wait."
They were nearly to the street when they suddenly heard Suri calling out to them.
"Hey! Wait for me!"
Before the Doctor could say anything, Jenny spun around and glared at him.
"Fuck off, Aladdin; no one wants to be around your drunk ass!"
Rose bent over, roaring with laughter, while Suri glowered at Jenny.
"I'm not drunk," Suri said, walking up to them.
"Yeah, sure you're not, we can see your red eyes from here," Jenny said.
"I don't sleep very well, alright?" Suri said.
"Yeah, cause you're too busy swigging down vodka, Sabu, I know how you are and I know what you do. You're drunk, anyone can see that," Jenny said.
"Fuck you."
"No, fuck you and get the fuck away from us before I kick you in the fucking balls!" Jenny said.
Suri glared at her. He made a move towards her and the Doctor stepped between him and her and gave him a look of warning. Suri sighed and shook his head as he walked away. When he was far enough away, the Doctor turned to Jenny and snickered.
"Aladdin? Sabu?" the Doctor said, amused.
"I don't know his real name, I just call him what everyone else around here calls him," Jenny said. "They call him Aladdin mainly because he looks like Aladdin from the cartoon."
"Yeah, he does, now that you said that," Rose said as they walked towards the bus station. "His name's Suri though."
"It is? Oh…okay, didn't know that," Jenny said. "Sorry, I try to stay away from him whenever possible so I didn't take the time to learn his real name."
"Aladdin," the Doctor said, nudging Rose, "we'll have to remember that one next time he comes round."
"And pardon my French, I don't know if you swear but I try to make myself look tough so people will leave me alone. I'm a nice person, honestly."
"No worries, we can tell you're a nice person," the Doctor said while Rose nodded. "I just love that you stood up to him, he's been bothering us since yesterday."
"Not many people like him because he does shit like that, follows people around and tries to mooch off of em, I try to ignore him but sometimes he doesn't get the message. He's one of the ones that lives up to that whole stereotyped image of homeless people. You know, lazy drunk who lives off others any way he can. That kind of person I can do without."
They sat down in the chairs in one of the bus bays. They noticed a few others were doing the same but the bus station was still locked and no buses were in sight yet. They set their backpacks down by their legs while they relaxed. While they were talking, Suri came into the parking lot. Everyone stopped talking when Suri stopped about twenty feet from them and glared at them.
"Keep moving, Dipshit," Jenny muttered while the Doctor and Rose giggled.
The Doctor watched while Jenny leaned forward and gave him the same glare. Suri flipped her off.
"No, that can't be your IQ, it's too damn high," Jenny muttered while the Doctor and Rose giggled some more.
Suri sighed and moved on.
"Bye, Sabu, don't let the door hit your drunken, loser ass on the way out," Jenny said airily before turning her attention back to her friends.
"Gee, Rose, I think we found us a bodyguard," the Doctor said, patting Jenny's arm. "She can keep us away from Suri."
"Good," Rose said, "she can keep us from being dragged to Christian film nights now."
"Where was that?" Jenny said.
"Up the road, that First Church?" Rose said, pointing towards the memorial.
"Oh, that Friday Night Alive thing?"
The Doctor and Rose nodded.
"Oh, last night was movie night? Damn, I don't mind going to those. Most of the time I do go but I have a food stamp card and I use it whenever I get tired of going to these churches and being preached to."
"That's why we snuck out early," the Doctor said. "Rose and I hated the Christian film they were showing. We're not religious."
"I'm not either. I'm spiritual but…well; I guess I'm multifaith although I'm more of a pagan right now. I mainly decide for myself what I believe and pick and choose from different faiths. I do believe some of what Christianity teaches but not everything and I get tired of having to sit through a sermon to get a meal. Unfortunately, most of the people who help the homeless are Christians and they use the whole feeding the homeless thing as an excuse to preach to them. Witnessing and all that. It gets on my nerves. But there are nice people in some of these churches. The ones at the Indian church are nice, they invited me to go to this thing in Ponca City and I go to a women's bible study thing every other Tuesday. They still preach but they bring in home cooked food and snacks and it beats anything the shelters serve so I put up with it. I do listen but I don't believe all of it like some people do."
"That's the way to be," the Doctor said. "I've studied many religions and many of them have the same sort of beliefs."
"I know, right? Most of the religions preach love thy neighbor and the golden rule and things like that. I've also studied a lot of different religions, because I'm curious and also because I loooove to read. I read every chance I get."
"Me too, love reading," the Doctor said.
"I read on occasion," Rose said. "But I do love to read when I get the chance. But I feel the same way. I like to form my own beliefs and I don't like being forced to listen to sermons I have no interest in. I do believe in God but I also believe people should be free to believe what they want to."
"Well, if you're gonna eat at these churches; be prepared to sit through their sermons. You do have the option to sit outside and wait but it's too hot and uncomfortable doing that so I go inside and just wait and listen in the air conditioning. Same with this past winter, I didn't want to sit in the freezing cold so I went inside. I just try to daydream or think about other things while they talk."
At 7, they saw the security guard open up the doors to the bus station. They went inside and used the lavatories. By the time they came back outside, a line was forming in front of a white pick-up truck across the street. The Doctor and Rose followed Jenny and they got in the back of the line when they reached it.
"Hey, Rose G!"
"Oh no," Rose muttered.
The Doctor snickered when G came up behind Rose.
"Nice to see you again, G," G said to her.
"Uh, yeah, you too," Rose said politely.
"Getting ya some doughnuts and coffee, G?"
Rose thought he was still talking to her but when she looked behind her; she noticed he was now talking to a Hispanic man that had just walked up. Rose shrugged and turned her attention back to the people on the truck.
"Good morning," a man was saying as he stood beside the truck, "nice to see everyone this morning. We're gonna serve breakfast but first I want to give you a little bible verse."
"See?" Jenny muttered to the Doctor and Rose.
The Doctor nodded and he and Rose waited with Jenny for the sermon to end. He checked his watch and noticed it was now almost 7:15 while the man talked about how God loved the homeless and would take care of them. After the five minute talk was over, the man grabbed an insulated bag and began handing everyone something wrapped up in tinfoil. He gave one to Jenny, the Doctor and Rose and Jenny turned to them.
"You guys want coffee or doughnuts?" she said.
"No," they both said.
"We better get going if we're gonna make the bus to Ponca City though," the Doctor added.
"Yeah, follow me and we'll go to BJ's real quick before we head over there."
As they walked away, Rose opened the tinfoil in her hand and saw a sausage biscuit inside. She touched it and made a face.
"Biscuit's soggy," she said, wrapping it back up.
"Yeah, they used to get them from Brahms and those were really good but that was back when they only had a few people coming to the truck but word got around and I guess it got to the point where they couldn't afford to go so they started making their own. They're okay, but nothing like Brahms and yeah, the biscuit is usually soggy like that."
They turned the corner when they reached the end of the bus station and headed back to Sister BJ's. it was a ten minute walk from the bus station and Jenny was dismayed when she saw that they were barbecuing instead of giving out sack lunches.
"Hope there isn't a line," she said as they went up the brick walkway to the gate.
By the time they got there though, the line had gone down and they each got two hamburgers on a Styrofoam plate and took a small sack of potato chips to go with it. They put some ketchup and mustard on the burgers and when Jenny requested a plastic sack to take hers in, the Doctor and Rose did the same. They watched while Jenny also requested a hygiene kit and the man behind the table gave her a small plastic bag filled with toiletries.
"If you guys need some hygiene stuff, you can ask them for a hygiene kit," Jenny said to them.
"Nah, we're good," the Doctor said.
Jenny checked her sack to make sure her hamburgers were still intact and then she, the Doctor and Rose left there and headed towards the Indian church.