Boy Claw

Boy Claw
by Jessica Williams

Boy Claw is clad in a pair of jeans, a black leather jacket and a pink beret to top it off.
Boy Claw has no value. He sees through everything. He stays cool through everything. If in pain, he smiles.
Boy Claw lives in shared accommodation. He moved into the flat several years ago. When food and drink run out, he flees and finds other means and then he returns when he knows the flat is stocked with food and drink again.
One day his flat mate, Carlos, threatened to give Boy Claw his marching orders if he does not get a job, because he's sick of having to stock the flat on his own.
Boy Claw does not like these terms; he flees. He is now homeless. Now the fight for survival!
Boy Claw withdraws the remaining £45.50 from his bank account. He will treat himself to a hotel room on his first night of homelessness, before real rough living starts. He chooses a hotel called 'The Three Stars', in Victoria.
In the morning, he goes to reception to pay the £40 for the room. He waits for the landlord. He nips out after waiting 10 minutes, and then steals away. He gets away with it.
Boy Claw finds himself in Hyde Park. Later on that evening, he slips into the Odeon Marble Arch. He goes into a screening room, sitting near the front. One of the cinema staff taps him on the shoulder: "Can I see your ticket please?” Boy Claw pulls out an old receipt from his pocket, showing it quickly. It works.
He watches the film for a while, and then falls asleep. He walks out of the cinema in case this is all a bit suspect, and resorts to a bench in Hyde Park. It is not too cold.
Boy Claw has got on quite well so far. Now he must plan ahead.
With the money he's saved from not paying for the hotel room, he will buy a sleeping bag and a rucksack to carry it in. He does this.
Boy Claw sleeps in an alcove encircled by bushes in Kensigton Gardens that night.
He is well-concealed. A little fox runs past him in the early hours of the morning. Later on, he sets off to the DSS in Edgeware Road. He signs on as 'no fixed abode' and he also receives a Crisis Loan of £60, which he waits two hours for.
Now what?
Boy Claw decides to get himself on a council flat waiting list. He goes along to the Kensington and Chelsea town hall, and gets his name down on the list.
Now the wait!
Next, he does something stupid. Boy Claw goes into a Boots store and lifts an electric toothbrush, in order to receive a refund. He gets caught. This is a pity, as he's just received his Crisis loan. He tells the store manager that he has no choice. He is lucky: he is told not to enter the store again, or the police will be called. Boy Claw walks away with his head down.
The weather is getting colder every day. It is October. Before he knows it, just as he is dreading the prospect of freezing nights, a flat comes through in Fulham. Things are looking up! He has enough money to buy a few necessities for his new flat. His sleeping bag will have to do until his grant comes through.
His one bedroom flat is on the ground floor.
When his grant comes, Boy Claw treats himself to an armchair and a few necessities.
Boy Claw is now a librarian. He's back on the rails!

The End