Karma Currency
it started as a way of living, and turned into something amazing.

Chapter 4. The Travelling Circus
The original developers of the karma currency

There came to town every summer a travelling circus of degenerates, found in space like robotic time travellers from another dimension. Their mechanisms were to search and destroy. They searched for free food, inside of dumpsters and begged on the street for money. Most were addicted to heroin and lived solely for the purpose of extending their lives so they could do more. They were so severely addicted that they were almost no longer human, in that they hardly needed any of the common amenities of human beings. They lacked compassion. They lacked emotion. They lacked the goodness in their hearts because it had all been washed away from a desire a long time ago to try something that they were aware would erase all of their feelings. It took away the good ones. It took away the bad ones. It all got washed away.

But the travelling circus was more than a wasteland. Some of these degenerates were actually quite clever. And a few of them were more than just bottom feeders. There were those who had nothing to do with heroin, or methamphetamines, or even coffee or sugar or dairy for that matter. Some members of the TC were in effect severe believers of their own ideology. Which wasn't by any means wrong. In fact, some would argue that their methods of approaching reality were in fact more on point than the rest of society, but so different that it prevented them from fitting in, as with any way shape or form.

Yet they took on all sizes. Some were small, others quite big. Some were quite pretty, hidden and disguised behind a protective layer of dirt and debris from years of street wandering that none of the conquistadors of the society they wished would evaporate would ever give them a glance. This made life easier, because nothing made it harder to take a stance than constantly having to turn down others' advance.

It was a mystery, how these renegades from a time not far from here managed to descend upon the hometown of the Macgurshkle. They wandered around with sticks and very heavy backpacks, often green with torn black teeshirts, covered in buttons and pins with words and phrases meant to offer advice to the poor confused citizens of the Times New Roman Empire. Their backpacks were filled with sleeping bags and can openers and changes of clothes, along with the smallest most easiest to carry models of intense significance, trinkets that reminded them of the other places.

And dogs. The travelling circus loves dogs. On the West Coast, they spend their summers in Seattle and Portland. And like birds from the north, they migrate during the long winters to congregate as far south as Ocean Beach in San Diego, but often travel inland to Texas on the Gulf Coast, or Gainesville perhaps in Florida. The weaker ones, often the youngest, would travel home if they could make it. Some of the young ones stayed home and left the streets behind as just a memory of a time when they were in the Travelling Circus Nation. Others stuck with it until they finally died, which was often not much later.

Street life and wandering the Earth like Kane can be a very difficult path. A hard decision. Kathryn and Ryan were great at it though. Ryan had a heroin problem, but Kathryn did not. She tried everything to keep Ryan away from it, but no matter, it was to no avail. Even really awesome wild passionate romance would not keep him away from "the others," whom Kathryn would not socialize with.

Kathryn was from Connecticut. Ryan was from New York. He grew up on Long Island, and they met in New York City. There was an area in the Lower East Side where all the kids would hang out. Ryan went there because he wanted to be like Sid Vicious. Kathryn thought she was going to meet Bob Dylan down there. A young man with a guitar who sang about sitting on the pavement, thinking about the government, and all of that.

Yes, it was idealistic, but they were young. And actually not that stupid. They were both smart enough to realize their place in the context of things. And they knew their history. That's what led them to the epicenter of the somatic psychic energy being generated in lower Manhattan.

The night they met, Ryan was piss drunk and screaming. He was furious about someone stealing his cheese fries, but in reality, there were no cheese fries, and he was actually just going through withdrawal. Kathryn overheard the debacle going on and approached Ryan. She said, "Shut up. You're going to get arrested."

Ryan: I don't care if i get arrested! I want my curly cheese fries! Cheese fries!!
Kathryn: SHHHHH! It's 3 in the morning and I was trying to sleep under that staircase over there.

Just then, a squad car rolled up. Woot WOOT! The siren did one of those.
Then two officers got out of the car. A man and a woman, both in their mid thirties. Too young to be Ryan and Kathryn's parents' age, but not young enough to identify with them as peers, per se; an in-between age for most conventional social interaction. The male officer flashed a light in their direction, and saw Ryan sitting there with Kathryn. Ryan looked like he had been crying, and so did Kathryn, but she had only been sleeping.

Officer man: "What's going on out here kids? You two having a fight?
Kathryn: "No, we're just... He's upset about his cheese fries, apparently."
Officer woman: "Just cheese fries?"
Ryan: (bellows, this time, rather softly) "Cheeeese... fries."

Kathryn only wanted to keep Ryan out of jail. She didn't even know the kid, but she thought that it would be a real good thing if she could, only because she realized what an awful place jail was. She had gotten thrown off a train in Texas once and had to spend a week in a penetentary while the local officials fussed around with paperwork, trying to figure out her identity. What she also realized, from being in similar experiences with others who had the same problem, was that Ryan was going through withdrawal and the problem had nothing to do with the cheese fries.

The next morning, the two of them woke up listening to the sound of the trash being taken out. Ryan had been a part of the experience of almost being taken out, himself, on one occasion. So this noise alerted him, as the dump truck made its daily round at 5:30am down St. Mark's Street.

This was an April morning. A beautiful nice spring morning where they barely needed a jacket by 10am. And where they were among the few who braved the New York winter outside in the cold,

As they sat on the street, flying a sign, it was something kind of evident that they were good looking kids. Ryan had a bit of an overbite and liked to wear his hair just slightly in front of his face, with a hat covering up the rest of it, slightly seeing through his hair in this one spot where the part fell on his forehead.

Kathryn had an even more interesting appearance. She was quintessentially Rainbow Brite, if you saw her from a distance. She had the entire outfit down to a science, and in every city she went to, she would find parts that she needed to replace for her outfit. But it was always basically the same outfit. Occasionally she'd include something in the winter that made her look like Eskimo Rainbow Brite.

Kathryn: "Ryan, we need to get at least five bucks. No. It's gotta be a little bit more than that. I need to get some things from the Sally today."
Ryan: "What's the Sally?"
Kathryn: "The Salvation Army, silly. You know, the place you buy all your clothes from?"
Ryan: "I didn't buy these. I found them in a dumpster."
Kathryn: "Are we going to make it this year for the annual "Yale Dumpster Parade?"
Ryan: "I don't see why not. We can get a ride with Muck or something."

Ryan's sign read "Young, broke, and stupid. Please help." It worked surprisingly well on 5th Ave, where it was possibly the funniest thing that most people had seen all day. And people gave good money for a laugh, so it wasn't long before Ryan had enough to send Kathryn on her way.

Kathryn: "You ready to go to the Salvation Army?"
Ryan: "We just got here like, what, fifteen minutes ago."
Kathryn: "Yeah but we already have like fifty bucks."
Ryan: "I'm gonna stay put. We're having a really good day here. I never make this much."
Kathryn: "You're missing out. I'm coming back later. Stay put!"
Ryan: "Who am I, your dog? I'll do whatever the frig I want."

Kathryn was already halfway down the block during the middle of that speech. She turned around and said, "I'm coming back and you better be here!" as she headed down to 8th Avenue.

The sun was still rising behind her as she walked from 5th down to 8th on 40th St. The sky was a brilliant pale blue in the West and it was going to be a really great day, but there was still a lingering chill in the air that did not appear to be going away. A more definitive breeze sent her into a direct chill as she walked in the shadows on the right side of the street up 8th Ave to 47th street. It was a good sign, though.

Kathryn said hello to the lady behind the counter. She was twirling her hair and snapping bubble gum as she stood behind the register. "How ya doin, honey?" she said in between pops. Kathryn just looked at her and smiled.

Off into the back where they kept all of the old videotapes, there was a bin full of stuffed animals. She fished through it and found a few interesting ones, but after just a quick browse, she headed over to a rack full of sweatshirts.

She flipped through the hoodies, looking for a bright one with a zipper. It had to be simple, but a vibrant primary color was her primary concern. There was a very bright green one, that also appeared to fit her nicely. It had a zipper, and was not a pullover, which mattered greatly to her for some reason.

Back to the bin full of stuffed animals, she remembered that there was a rather large sized frog in the pile. She found the frog, and took it out, and examined the ears of the frog. They were small.

"But you will do," she said out loud to the stuffed animal.

She brought up the stuffed animal and the hoodie to the register. Most people thought she was only in middle school, but in reality she was 19. Kathryn had done one year at a state school in upstate New York. It was an art school called "SUNY Purchase." But she didn't like it there. It wasn't the right place for her. It all seemed so theoretical, and she wanted to be a part of a world that she considered to be infinitely more real.

So she dropped out. And now she was hanging out with Ryan, headed back to 5th avenue, if he hadn't gotten thrown off the corner by now. She stopped at a dollar store along the way and picked up some thread and some sewing needles. As she turned the corner she could hear someone yelling.

Ryan: "It's a free country. I can sit here if i want!"
Security: "Come on kid, it's time to go. Don't make me get serious."
Kathryn: "Hi, this is my friend. Come on Ryan, let's get out of here."

The two of them walked away, with Ryan cursing under his breath. "You know," he said, "I was only putting up a fuss because I was waiting for you to get back. I didn't want to, you know, leave the spot and then not be able to find you."

Kathryn: "Yeah, ok sure. You were just stalling for time."
Ryan: "Exactly. It wasn't like I was making anything there anyway."
Kathryn: "How much did you make while I was gone?"
Ryan: (smiles behind his mop of hair) "Really want to know?"

He kicked a stone down the street as they walked. It bumped off the curb and went into a gutter, down the train, making a very faint ker-plunk.

Ryan: "I didn't make nothing."
Kathryn: "Not a penny? Not a dime?"
Ryan: "Nobody gave me anything after you left."

And he knew why. Kathryn was good luck, he thought to himself. I mean, yeah, it had much to do with how freaking cute she was. But he still needed heroin. It was stealing all his karma away. Every time he thought he had built up enough good will through kind words and actions to make him feel good about himself, he'd need to cop some dope and it would all fade away. All the effort he set forth.

But Ryan didn't really believe in karma. That's partially why he got involved in opiates. Rather than fight back against a system he wasn't sure he could beat, he chose self-defeat, and it was working out just fine. The crap weather sucked, the great weather was awesome, and he spent all his time outdoors. It became alost a thing where he did not even realize that it had been weeks since last he was inside of a building. Not counting courtyards and foyers.

If it were San Francisco, the two of them would have headed to the Panhandle Park and sat on the hill, watching the world come and go. But this was New York, so they instead meandered down to Union Square.

They sat facing the giant numerical display that counted down the world's collapse in terms of finances. It was steadily declining in deficit towards 3 trillion. There were skateboarders doing laps around the stairs, taking turns at the handrails. Ryan was taking in the day, his hair slightly more away from his face for a change, only because he was scoping the area for a drug dealer. Kathryn took out the things from her bag that she bought at the Salvation Army and the Dollar Store that morning. But she didn't have any scissors.

Kathryn: "Ryan, do you have scissors?"
Ryan: "Do I look like I carry scissors on me? I'm not supposed to have them on me. My mom said never keep them in your pocket or run around with them in your hands. Remember that crap?"
Kathryn: "No, seriously. Not even a knife, or anything sharp?"
Ryan: "I can go into that dumpster and find a bottle and break it. That would be sharp."
Kathryn: "Nevermind, I'll be back in just a little bit. I'm going across the street."

There was a giant supermarket across the street. It seemed to Kathryn that it was almost too nice to step foot in. But she did so anyway, and planted her feet through the automatic door that stood between her and her pair of scissors.

Over by the customer service counter, there was a woman who was probably the same age as Kathryn. Except she probably had gotten into NYU, and was under the dilusion that she was somehow helping to pay for it by working at Wholefoods. In any event, she was self-righteous enough to qualify for the position, and was adept at handling situations similar to the one she was about to find herself in.

Kathryn walked up slowly to the counter, like she was sneaking up on someone. She got close to the girl; probably at a distance that made her possible to smell. "Do you have any scissors?"

Customer Service Girl: "What for?"
Kathryn: "An art project. I just need to borrow them for a second or two."
Customer Service Girl: "What kind of art project?"
Kathryn: "Does it really matter? I'll give them right back."
Customer Service Girl: "I need to know. You're not giving them back with glue all over them."
Kathryn: "I'm making a hooded sweatshirt."
Customer Service Girl: "Oh. That actually sounds pretty neat. Did you make your skirt?"
Kathryn: "Actually, yeah. It was a blanket. Well, several blankets, to be exact.
Customer Service Girl: "Are you in fashion school?"

Here was the conundrum. She could either say, "Yeah, I'm in fashion school." And this girl would gladly hand over the scissors with a big smile. But that would be a lie.

Kathryn: "Yeah, I'm in school. I'm at FIT."
Customer Service Girl: "Oh, that's wonderful. My best friend Natasha is at FIT. Do you know her?"
Kathryn: "It's a pretty big school."

The girl hands Kathryn the scissors, who takes out the stuffed frog from her bag.
CSG: "What are you going to do with that stuffed frog?" she said, fearfully.
Kathryn: "I'm going to poach it."
CSG: "Poach? What on earth do you..."

Just as she said that, Kathryn cut off one of the frog's ears.
CSG: "Oh my! I can't believe you! Give me those scissors back. Where did you get that frog?"
Kathryn: "At the Salvation Army. I can do whatever I want with it."
CSG: "Not with my scissors. Those scissors are not going to be a part of your poaching. No way! Now give me them back!!!"

Kathryn just looked at her a little bit funny. Then she thought about making a dash. But she only had one more ear to cut off. So as the customer service girl attempted to hastily jump over the counter, in an effort to stop Kathryn from cutting off the frog's other ear.

The scissors were fought over between the two of them. Kathryn was done with her mission, but still held on just out of principle. Then she let go of the scissors, suddenly, and sent the customer service girl tumbling to the ground, the scissors sliding along the linoleum floor, stopping right next to the sliding door.

The sliding door opened and Kathryn booked it. There was no way she was sticking around for the authori

Ryan looked at Kathryn and laughed. "What the hell happened to you?"
Kathryn: "Let's get out of here. We need to bounce."
Ryan: "Wash Square?"
Kathryn: "Whatever. It really doesn't matter."

They booked it hastily, and conversed. It was going on noon, and the whole event had caused Kathryn to perspire quite a bit. She took off her long-sleeved rainbow striped shirt, speed walking now in a loose fitting tee shirt. Ryan for the first time noticed that she had a nice figure, and the springtime weather got more than his mind thinking.

Kathryn: "The girl at the counter who gave me the scissors, she got all PETA on me."
Ryan: "Really? What were you doing, is that a fur hoodie or something?"
Kathryn: "No, she freaked about the stuffed animal."
Ryan: "Whatever. Some people got nothing better to do."

They packed up once again and walked over to Washington Square. A different crowd of people were there. Along the way, they passed by a pizza place.

With a mouth full of pepperoni, he said, "You know, I believe in the goodness of your heart, and being kind to all the animals in the world, and what not. Sure." He munched, "But, a guy's got to survive. And beggars can't be choosers. If i turned down this slice because it wasn't vegan or whatever, I'd freaking starve to death."

He had a good point. They sat in the grass and Ryan watched the clouds. While Kathryn was in the grocery store getting scissors, he had picked up a bag from a dealer in Union Square. He hadn't done it yet, but his thoughts as he stared at the sky wandered back and forth between getting high, and/or hooking up with Kathryn.

Kathryn was sewing the green frog ears onto the hoodie that she bought. The thread came in a little package that she got a the dollar store. It was thin green thread that was slightly shiny. She used a ton of it and made very meticulous stitches, attaching the ears to the hood part of the sweatshirt. It was heading into later in the afternoon. Ryan was rambling about his childhood, and Kathryn swapped stories from her youth, during a time when they were both more conventional, by comparison to the rest of society.

And she sort of felt like she had something to prove.

Kathryn: "I'm not in school. I'm homeless. I'm not sure if you gathered that."
Customer Service Girl: "Well, you should really go to school. You would do such great stuff."
Kathryn: "I already do great stuff. ."
Customer Service Girl: "But you could be getting payed for doing it."
Kathryn: "Yeah, payed so that ."
Customer Service Girl: "Well, you should really go to school. You would do such great stuff."






Kathryn was the one who always smiled at some. Ryan looked at them with a weird look in his eye that they could not see. Maybe that's why he wore his hair in front of his face. Kathryn wanted Ryan to be more friendly. She wanted people to love Ryan more, because she wanted good things to happen for Ryan, but it was hard, because they were gutter punks who barely could get their act together. What future was there in that?

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