Pay It Forward Read Online Free PDF

line, kid. We did this to ourselves.
    Me, I have a problem sometimes. With drugs. This is my own fault. Nobody else’s. Not my mother. Not God or the government. They did not stick a needle in my arm. I did this to myself. But I have not had any drugs for a few weeks now. I been clean.
    I lost some stuff because of my problems. A car, even though it was not a very good one. And my apartment. And then I went to jail, and they did not hold my job for when I got out.
    But I got lots of things I can do. I got skills. I have worked in wrecking yards, and in body shops, and I have even worked as a mechanic. I am a good mechanic. It’s not that I’m not. But, used to, you could go in kind of scruffy and dirty. For a mechanics job no one would mind.
    But now times is hard, and guys show up for the same job. Dressed good, and some even got a state license. So they say, fill out this form. Which I can do. Cause as you see, I can read and write pretty good. But then they say, put down your number. We’ll call you if you get the job.
    But the dumpster where I been staying ain’t got a phone. So I say, I’m just getting settled in. And they say, put your address, then. We’ll send you a postcard.
    And they know, then. That you are on the street. And I guess they figure you got problems, stuff they don’t know nothing about.
    And, well, I guess I do. Like I said.
    But if I had a chance at a job now, I would not screw it up like I have done before. It would be different this time.
    These other people, look at them. They have got used to their situation. They expect to sleep on the street. And I guess that is okay with them.
    But it is not okay with me. I don’t think I quite sunk that low. Anyway, not yet.
    So if you go with me, you won’t be sorry.
    I guess that’s all I got to say.
    Also, thank you. I never knowed no kid who gave money away. I had a job at your age, and I spent the money on me. You must be a good kid.
    I guess that’s all now. Thanks for your time.
    When Jerry looked up, everybody else except the kid had gone.

Chapter Four
A RLENE
    I t was not even seven o’clock, and therefore a scandalous hour of the morning, especially when a damned Ford extra cab had kept you awake half the night. Someone was shaking her shoulder, and without being exactly conscious, she knew by instinct that it was her boy.
    “Momma? Are you awake?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Can Jerry come in and take a shower?”
    She blinked and squinted at the clock. She had another half an hour to sleep. Nothing should have been happening now. A dream maybe, but that’s it. “Who’s Jerry?”
    “My friend.”
    She hadn’t known Trevor to have any friends named Jerry, and now she had forgotten the original request.
    “Use your own judgment. I’ll be up in a half hour.”
    She folded a pillow around her head, and that was the last thing she remembered until the alarm clock went off and she threw the pillow at it. She was not mad at the alarm, she was mad at the damn truck and at Ricky, but one had suffered enough abuse as it stood, and the other was not around.
    A few minutes later, as she set a bowl of hot cereal in front of the boy, a total stranger popped out of the hall and into the kitchen. She was all set to scream but felt too embarrassed to follow through, maybe because, out of the three of them, she was the only one who seemed the least bit surprised.
    She figured the man to be in his forties, at least, short, clean shaven, with a receding hairline, and he was wearing brand-new blue jeans and a stiff-looking denim shirt.
    “Who the hell are you?”
    He didn’t answer fast enough, so Trevor said, “It’s Jerry, Mom. Remember you said he could come in and take a shower?”
    “I said that?”
    “Yeah.”
    “When did I say that?”
    “Right before you woke up.”
    Meanwhile Jerry had said nothing in his own defense or otherwise, but apparently was a smart enough man to know when and where he was not wanted, because he began to creep