Mad Lennie.

It was Friday night when we met; I had had a ludicrously long and fairly monotonous week at work. I was supposed to meet a friend after work for a drink but she cancelled me last minute, I didn’t let that stop me from making the most of my Friday evening, I thought to myself, its Friday night why go home?  I work rite in the heart of the London madness, as soon as work was out, I set out for an adventure on my own and merely floated through the busy London streets with absolutely no destination in mind, I just walked in which ever direction felt rite at the time, I did not stop to question where I was going I just let it be.

The night was cold but fresh, the streets were buzzing with people, hundreds of people each doing their own thing. I stopped, watched and admired every busker I saw, I admire them for doing what they love in the streets for all to see.

Anyway, after wandering around for a rather long time I came across another busker, I liked the sound of his music, it was the most chilled out kind that I had heard all night and so I decided to sit down on some stairs across form Charing Cross train station. I had been sitting on the stairs for a while, watching people go by, up and down the stairs as I listened to the man play his guitar so beautifully well. It was pleasant and calm and I was in a great mood.  I was writing my thoughts in my journal and that’s when we met.

He interrupted me with a hello; I looked up to acknowledge the stranger and me being I greeted him with open arms. Hello I said and from there we got chatting to one another He told me he knew what it was like, I momentarily didn’t have clue what he was on about until I realised he thought I was homeless. I fail to this day to see why he thought I was homeless not baring in mind the fact I was sitting on the floor as I work for a fashion company, I wasn’t exactly dressed in ripped rags if you know what I mean. I had a leopard print fur coat on, dark jeans and a hoodie. My hood was up though.  I’m guessing it was the unapproachable don’t acknowledge me look combined with sitting on the floor and warring a dark hood.  He introduced himself to me, said he was Mad Lennie, I told him it was a pleasure to meet him and that I was mad Lily.

Lennie and I talked for absolutely ages, he used to live on the streets, he’s ok now though, has a job at waterloo train station, fixing the trains. Lennie’s been in and out of prison and has a daughter with his ex-wife, his daughter who is now 16 is totally unaware of his mischievous past that was filled with drugs, violence, homelessness and general bad experiences. I loved how Lennie was expressing his life to me and deeply opening up, I’m a good listener and I love to listen to people’s stories. I never told Lennie I wasn’t homeless as I didn’t really feel the need, since it was he who had assumed that I was in the first place and I figured we would never met again and so why not embody this homeless entity that he though I was for the evening whilst I was in his company. 

Lennie said I must be so hungry, I told him I was fine but he insisted on buying me dinner before we went our separate ways. I persisted to insist that I was fine and not hungry, he said he would forever feel awful if he didn’t buy me dinner. Lennie said he had £3 on him and that he would really love to spend that on buying us McDonalds for dinner. A great cynic for MacDonald’s and its evil existence, I said fuck it and let him buy me dinner. I had not eaten the shit since I was at least 7 years old but whatever I was a ‘homeless girl’ and beggars cannot be choosers. We went to McDonalds, Lennie and I did `Lennie asked me what I wanted but I told him to choose as I really didn’t care. We got dinner and went back outside where we chatted away over our McDonalds and listened to the same guy playing guitar, guilt aside for the poison I was putting in my body, I generally felt so happy to be eating dinner with Lennie. 

Lennie is a kind-hearted stranger who kept acknowledging the fact that he didn’t have to speak to me when he did but he was drawn to me, this act of kindness will forever be with me.  I am happy to have met Lennie on that Friday night. Everyday my mind is opened a little bit more and I welcome every new experience that comes my way with open arms. Bring on the next one.