Sleep

The mid-day sun beat upon the shorn head of Tien-Huat as he tried to doze off on one of park benches at the local community park. It was a Saturday, the weekend, and there were many people who were out and about at the park doing their usual outdoor recreational activities. A perfect cover for him to just sit on the bench and try to get some sleep.

Being homeless and out on the streets was illegal. Vagabonds were routinely picked up, processed and sometimes even charged in court of illegal loitering and other criminal charges, depending on how industrious the public prosecutor was when the arraignment was arranged. Tien-Huat knew a few fellow vagabonds who had been sent through the jail system by one of these many inglorious routes. Some of them deliberately got themselves picked up, especially those who had already figured out that they had no chance of getting out of the cycle whatsoever. It was preferable to be in jail, where there was food, shelter and perhaps some company from the other inmates. It sure beat living out on the streets where it was extremely hard even to panhandle---there were explicit laws against that.

The only catch was a permanent record. A tough trade-off.

Tien-Huat sighed through his closed eyes, the sun reddening the interior of his eye lids as he tried to take a snooze. The city was well-known for its greenery and relatively safe environment, but it came at a high price of demanding all manners of efficiency, while neglecting those who had fallen through the cracks. He wasn't ready to give it up yet; he still believed that he had some hope in getting out of his situation. He could always do some part-time odd jobs, like doing janitorial work for some of the smaller buildings. But such jobs were becoming harder to come by as many places started to contract niche companies to provide manpower for the service. Tien-Huat could apply to be a worker in these contract companies, but the catch was that they always needed a permanent address before they were even willing to consider him for their post, no matter how simple the job was.

Tien-Huat relaxed himself on the bench and tried to enjoy the warmth of the sun. A couple of years ago, he still had an apartment. It was small --- just a one-room flat --- but it provided shelter and basic supplies like water and sewerage handling. But the building was condemned for its age, and everyone was forcibly evicted. There was some small compensation given, but it came too little and too late for him to find a new place to live. He tried renting other similar one-room apartments, but it was a supplier's market, with many people muscling to rent the few apartments that were available. Tien-Huat cursed under his breath. He blamed it on the influx of cheap foreign labour, the many itinerant workers who flooded the city to fill up the lowest paying jobs of the niche companies. They had special concessions in getting a place to live that people like Tien-Huat didn't have, and so, they break the cycle faster than people like he could.

The thoughts flowed through Tien-Huat's mind as he slowly drifted into a deep sleep, something that he had missed throughout the week while trying to dodge the police officers who had seemingly increased their patrol to round-up people like him. He had been fairly lucky; he always had some respectable looking shirts and jeans that he wore which camouflaged his homeless state, but he never did know how long his luck would last given how conditions were starting to worsen. At least the city was in the tropics, which meant only needing to deal with relatively small variations of temperature throughout the year. But that was little comfort for Tien-Huat.

He slept quietly and peacefully. When the evening came around, his eyes were still closed. Some police officers were called in to check on him after receiving reports of a man who had been sitting on the park bench for the whole afternoon, mostly motionless. As one of the officers called out to him, the other gently touched Tien-Huat on his upper arm.

Tien-Huat's lifeless body slid down the bench into a lying position.