He struggles to speak but has trouble breathing because of his emphysema. When he can get his words out, he tells me how another client has taken him for two packs of cigarettes. Tom seems overly angry about losing some cigarettes and a few bucks, but I later find out the guy who ripped off Tom is a noted con man who makes a habit of getting whatever he can. Reading my book becomes virtually impossible. The conversations interfere with any concentration.
Several men boast to one another about what they owned before they hit rock bottom.
One man talks about how his wife won their home and cars in a divorce. Another mentions he had a successful business until a drug addiction ruled his life, and he lost everything. A third man brags about his knack for catching freight trains from state to state and claims not to have worked a steady job in years. I leave the room and head for my bed. The silence in the barracks strikes, leaving me with overwhelming fear.