Page 35 of Embattled Ever After

He waved at Renita, the receptionist slash security guard for the dayshift. With a broad smile splitting her normally stern face, she waved him through. “Hey, Mr. Wilde. I thought Palmer was coming today?”

“Renita,” he nodded with a smile. “He’s got something else to do today.”

She nodded. “You’ve got your work cut out for you today, sir! Full house.”

Duncan gave a wave and headed through the security door and into the largest room in the facility. It served as a cafeteria and game room. Large round tables waited at the front of the room for those eating, and the tables at the back of the room were for card or board games the men played with each other. A flat-screen TV played cartoons on one wall, and a soap opera played on another. There were a line of cots along the side wall, and Duncan knew they would be full by the time night rolled around. Through the security door at the back of the room was a hallway that led to a dormitory of sorts. Homeless men came here when they reached their limit on the street. If they ran out of money or food and just couldn’t go any longer, men came here for short term room and board. It gave them a chance to catch up on whatever they were lacking on the streets.

Denver tried to house all of its homeless, but did a less than stellar job. There were still about six thousand homeless men, women and children on its streets, though the city had enacted a program years before to eradicate homelessness. Harmony House provided services for men only, with programs specifically designed for veterans.

When he walked into the room, several men called out to him. Duncan waved and continued on back through the double doors, then down a hallway to the right. Alex followed at his shoulder, and he could feel the attention her presence garnered. Men would come in just to see who she was.

There were men already in the room waiting for him to arrive. Clean and not-so-clean, tall, short and every possible ethnicity. Duncan went around the group, shaking the hands of those that didn’t mind the contact. As he did so, he introduced Alex to those same men.

“Why’d you bring a doc, Wilde?”

Duncan looked at Crazy Charlie, not exactly sure how to answer the man. “Well,” he paused.

“I was interested,” Alex interjected gently.

Charlie’s cagey eyes looked her up and down, not impressed with her looks. Crazy Charlie wasn’t impressed with much of anything. He turned away without saying a word.

Mike P. came up next, along with his buddy he never went far from, Mike R. If you saw one man on the street, you saw the other. Duncan had learned a couple of years ago that they had served in the Army together. They had been in the same battalion and pounded the same dirt together. It was one of those amazing stories of veterans reconnecting after years apart.

Duncan had seen it many times. Anytime he went anywhere with John Palmer, it seemed like the man had a nose for reconnecting with other Marines. Bars seemed to be especially good places to find them, because that was the nature of the beast. Fighting men liked to relax, and the quickest and easiest way to do that was in a bar drinking beer.

Smiling, he shook the men’s hands, then introduced Alex.

“Oh, a doctor,” Mike P., the more talkative of the two, drew out the last syllable like it was an expensive word as he shook Alex’s delicate hand.

“She’s a lot prettier than that Jarhead you normally bring with you,” Mike P. told him with a nod.

“Hey, now, no slamming Jarheads,” Alex warned, holding up a finger. “I come from a long, proud family of them.”

After a pregnant pause, the men laughed with her. Alex had officially broken the ice.

As Duncan moved through the room, talking to the men he’d come to know over the past couple of years, Alex wandered off with the Mikes. She didn’t seem concerned so Duncan tried not to be either, though he watched her closely. He didn’t fool himself in thinking that just because these guys were vets they were all okay. Some, he knew, had criminal records, both serious and not. The guy in the back corner with the heavy black parka on had been convicted several times of carrying a weapon, and even though they were not allowed to bring weapons on Harmony House property, Duncan had a feeling he still wore the parka inside for a reason.

Granted, some of the guys in here were very protective of their property, but there were lockers for them to use so they didn’t need to drag the carts, bags or shopping buggies inside. The House tried to make it as convenient and welcoming for the residents as possible.

Duncan moved to his normal spot at the end of a long, rectangular table. There was no official agenda when he came in to talk to these guys, just a caution to be respectful. Duncan would talk as long as anyone had anything to talk about. Sometimes it was about the crazy cold weather in Denver, other times it was about the political climate in China. The range of topics wasn’t limited in any way. Duncan’s main motivation in coming here twice a week was to let the guys know they were not forgotten. The military and the families may have let these men go, but Duncan hadn’t and he wouldn’t, ever.

Tonight, he was unsurprised to find himselfnotthe focus of the attention.

Alex moved to sit at his side and the questions started, mostly directed to her. She was an unusual, intriguing item on display in the group. Duncan was prepared to break in if any became too personal, but she didn’t seem to mind any of them.

“Where’d you meet Wilde?” one asked her, and Alex had to pause for a moment, as if gathering her thoughts.

“I met him in Kansas City when he came out for Aiden Willingham, another veteran.”

The men turned quiet then, and shared looks between them. They knew Duncan had gone out to identify him. A few of the men looked away completely.

“You guys knew Aiden?”

She directed the question to the Mikes, and Duncan wasn’t sure if they would answer or not.

“Yeah, we knew him,” Mike P. confirmed. “As much as you can know anyone on the streets. Didn’t seem like the kind of guy used to living like we did. Only came in when something was going on. Even on the coldest days he stayed outside, said someone else could use the bed.”

Alex nodded. “So you guys haven’t seen him for a while, then?”

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