Turtle Soup

On a hot spring day in South Florida…

I was far enough ahead of the mowing crew that I was out of there sight. I had to take a leak so I decided to stash my weed wacker and explore a trail that caught my attention.

We landscaped miles of county road medians so when I was on weed wacker detail I got as far ahead of the guys mowing as I could. I’d weed wack like a mad man until I got so far ahead of them that I could goof off until they caught up.

The trail was an old road into a defunct orange grove. Thick forest had overtaken the once maintained grove causing essentially a mini-forest within the city limits.

As I was walking the sound of someone singing was coming from behind a tree. Curiously I approached the tree to check it out. I went around the other side of the tree and there stood a completely naked man. He seemed upset with me for startling him.

Water flowed from a pipe that filled the stone pool he bathed in. It was an old artesian well they used as a water source back when the grove was farmed commercially. After he calmed down he introduced himself to me. As he wrapped a towel around his waist, he told me that among the community there is established etiquette when approaching the bath. One must announce his or her self before proceeding to the bath.

The community?

He then asked me to keep what he’s about to show me secret. He took me to the hobo village. There was tents. There was people living out of vans and cars and makeshift huts.

As he brought me down to where some people were congrating he explained that he’d been there for a few years and he said some people have been there for like 20 years.

As we walked up to the people one guy outright protested me being there. Only one of them would introduce herself to me. The rest of them were apparently really sketched by “outsiders”.

They told me they all pitch in getting food and whatever other accoutrements they need from town mostly by panhandling.

As I parted ways and began to make my way back to the main road I was overwhelmed with what I just witnessed. A bunch of people of various ages (no kids) living in an old orange grove in the middle of town? But I hadn’t seen nothing yet…

As I exited the trail I noticed the mowing guys were all looking down at something from the little bridge across the highway. “Come over here and check this out!”

I crossed the highway and walked over to see what they were all looking at. To my amazement there were several giant see turtle shells and a pile of guts discarded under the bridge.

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