Berri-UQAM

Bozo

Pierre explained, "He was one of the other beggars at Berri-UQAM. He was never one to hassle someone if they refused to give. But being a go-getter, he was always there to ask. That was a trait he said he got from his father, who was a sailor in the Navy. One day, I saw a girl talking to Bozo. He's young, and he's still got a certain 'Je ne sais quoi'. Even though he looked raggedy, he would get hit on, mostly by drunk girls pouring out of the bars. But this girl was different. She dressed well and she was sober. She was tall and she had an air to her that was simply bourgeois. Before I could talk to him, and see what was up. He left with her. We had no idea where they went or who she was. After that, we never saw him again." She started to cry more. It seemed as if her cheeks filled with tears as the story went on.

Pierre continued to explain, "Today, Silvain, one of the other beggars came to me and told us he ran into Bozo who told him he was living in a "Chateau by the water". Now, that didn't make much sense to us. Montreal has no chateaus. We asked him if he knew where Bozo was. He said he knows what stop he's begging at now: Honare-Beauregard."

So the next morning, we both took the subway to the station, which is at the end of the Green Line. Outside, we saw Bozo, begging like he normally does, but he seemed different. He went to every person and asked for money. If they didn't give, he would chase them down. It was strange."

"His face looked as if it were deteriorating. He looked so young, but when we saw him he looked so old." His girlfriend explained. "We went up to him. He was surprised to see us. 'So you got enough to take a metro, congratulations' he said when he saw us. We told him we were free and figured we'd visit him. Pierre asked him where he was staying. When he asked, Bozo's eyes got big. He seemed happy we asked. A tad too happy."

"He told us he was staying in a 'chateau in the water'," Pierre explained. "It was all so confusing and made no sense. We agreed to follow him, just to see if this was true. We went on a bus with him. We took it all the way to the end."

"It was a very long, silent, 20 mins." The girlfriend interjected while packing another blunt.

"When we got to last station, he guided us on a 40 min walk. On the walk, he talked about his horses and chariots. He told us about his musicians dressed in fine linen." His girlfriend turned to me, and she looked concerned. "We walked along the highway, and even through the Parc de la Coulée-Grou. At one point he stopped and told us we arrived."

"We knew there wasn't going to be a chateau. He pushed the weeds aside and we saw a sad tent, a fire pit and a raft. 'Why are you here?' I asked him. It was sad to see."

"He told us about the girl he met that day. She asked him if he wanted to do something together. He was down. He figured that this girl wanted to fuck, and he was down to fuck. On the Metro ride, he told me she took out a small vile of orange liquid that she snorted up her nose. She had another one and offered it to him. He didn't know what it was. He took it. They started intensly making out and even started to get physical. She was parked at the station and they drove to that spot in the woods. Where they fucked in the grass. He said it was the best fuck of his entire life. He said he felt like a king, high in a castle. He fell in love." You can guess that this story is a sad one to smoke to. My heart broke mid-hit. What's horrible about this is that he clearly fell in love. I knew that if this story was like most, she didn't love him and she wasn't coming back.

"When they fucked it was the dead of night. Afterward, she just grabbed her clothes and left. He woke up alone." his girlfriend said. "When he finished telling the story, we looked at each other and we knew he was a fool in love. He told us when he woke up and didn't see her there, he knew he had to wait for her there."

"I asked him what made him think that she would come back. He said that she left her Rolex watch in the grass. He, apparently, also didn't wear a condom and left his seed. He figured that she would come and find him to raise the child together."

I couldn't help but giggle at the audacity and sheer human folly of the whole ordeal. Pierre took a hit and continued on, "I looked around and I noticed what looked like a raft in his makeshift camp. I asked him about it and he told me that he goes on it at night to look for her." The second blunt finished with the story. It was late and I needed to get back to my hotel, and smoke a personal bowl after a story like that. We said our goodbyes and parted ways.