Homeless Halloween
By: Jesse Suphan
Tags: Homeless, Comedy, Childhood, Gay, Halloween

For a period of time in about the second grade, my father and I lived in a homeless shelter in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This was during a transition after he had graduated law school but before he was able to get his law licence. He had moved there for a job opportunity that ultimately did not pan out. The name of the shelter was Joy Junction, which my classmates in school lovingly called “junkyard junction”.

The Shelter had a large main room with lots of pullout couches lined up in long lines, a kitchen on one wall, and private rooms on another for families. The couches were all single men, and the private rooms were families with fathers, and the kitchen held day all Long John Silvers. There was another facility that women and children stayed in.

Do to the oddity of my father being a homeless single father and me being an adorable boy straight out of a Judy Blume novel, we had to stay on a pullout couch in the main room. I remember longing so hard to be in the facility with all the other kids, at least in the private room, and for god sakes would Long John Silver donate something other than popcorn shrimp. It was delicious but a Judy Blume Boy needed a salad once in a while.

My best friend at the time was Javed, and he had a large Muslim family and they started out in a private room in the main facility. When room opened up in the women and children's facility Javed’s father stayed behind so his family could move. They didn’t allow any males over a certain age to be there. Javed would sneak me in so we could hangout and I could use the showers there. It was a lot less terrifying.

It was Halloween time and the local church had handed out flyers for Halloween party they were having. They were going to bring a bus to come pick up the kids and their chaperones and take them to the party. I was in desperate need of a party. They were going to have punch, candy, bobbing for apples, and nowhere was popcorn shrimp mentioned.

My father had now found a job and had repeated the phrase “We’re out of here soon” to me everyday daily as we pushed the mattress back into the couch. He was going to buy me a costume and take me to the church party. We went to K-Mart and I picked out my dream costume. Batman. I was going to be Batman. Javed and I played in our costumes for days leading up to the party. He was plastic faced Superman and I was plastic faced Batman. We practiced our bobbing skills on popcorn shrimp, and colored paper bags from the grocery store to bring home all the candy we could.

The day came for the Halloween party and I was with Javed and his parents getting ready after school. My dad would get home from work and we would get on the bus to go to the party. My father though had not arrived back from work and it was getting late. They lined everyone up and were preparing to get on the bus. My father was nowhere to be seen. I started to panic in my plastic Batman mask. Javed’s dad asked the Church bus attendant if he could chaperone me and the church attendant said “No, only parents or legal guardians.” This statement would ruin organized religion for me forever.

I was furious. Where was my father? Why would he ruin the most important event of my life? Why didn’t Javed’s dad play it fucking cool and just all walk on the bus together? That’s what would have happened in a Judy Bloom book!

I asked him if he could just tell them he was my daddy. He said it was too late.

The bus drove away as I cried under my Batman mask and Javed’s Superman face was pressed up against the window. He said he would bring back as much as he could for me.

My father showed up shortly after and claimed his car had been on fire. He was covered in soot and did arrive in a tow truck so his story checked out.

Two major takeaways came from this.