介绍： 猫咪爱好者们绝不能错过的一本半自传体小说，由故事的主人公James Bowen亲自执笔，讲述了一个在生活困境中苦苦挣扎的流浪歌手, 父母离异，他游走在城市的边缘地带，小偷小摸，甚至沾染上毒品，人生充斥着满满的苦涩和绝望。直到他遇见四处流浪伤痕累累的橘猫Bob，从那天起，James的生命中不知不觉得多了一份牵挂......

【Chapter 12：...

介绍： 猫咪爱好者们绝不能错过的一本半自传体小说，由故事的主人公James Bowen亲自执笔，讲述了一个在生活困境中苦苦挣扎的流浪歌手, 父母离异，他游走在城市的边缘地带，小偷小摸，甚至沾染上毒品，人生充斥着满满的苦涩和绝望。直到他遇见四处流浪伤痕累累的橘猫Bob，从那天起，James的生命中不知不觉得多了一份牵挂......

【Chapter 12：Number 683】

I had to have my photo taken and then wait to get a laminated badge with my vendor number on it. I asked the guy who was issuing the badges whether Bob could have an ID card as well.

‘Sorry,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘Pets aren’t allowed to have their own badges.

We’ve had this before with dogs. Never with a cat, though.’

‘Well, what about if he is in the picture with me?’ I asked.

He pulled a face, as if to say, I’m not sure about that. But in the end he relented.

‘Go on then,’ he said.

‘Smile, Bob,’ I said, as we sat in front of the camera.

As he waited for the photo to be processed, the guy got on with the rest of the registration process. When you become a Big Issue seller you get assigned a random number. They are not issued in sequence. If they did that the numbers would now be running into the thousands because so many people have signed up to sell the Big Issue over the years then just disappeared off the face of the earth. So when someone fails to show up on the records for a while the number comes back into circulation. They have to do that.

After waiting about a quarter of an hour, the guy reappeared at the desk.

‘Here you go, Mr Bowen,’ he said, handing me the laminated badge.

I couldn’t help breaking into a big grin at the picture. Bob was on the left-hand side. We were a team. Big Issue Vendors Number 683.

It was a long journey back to Tottenham, involving two buses. So I whiled away the hour and a half it took us reading through the little booklet they gave me. I’d read something similar ten years earlier but hadn’t really retained any of it. If I was honest, I’d not really taken it seriously. I’d been too out of it a lot of the time. This time around I was determined to take it more seriously.

It began with the magazine’s main philosophy:

‘The Big Issue exists to offer homeless and vulnerably housed people the opportunity to earn a legitimate income by selling a magazine to the general public. We believe in offering “a hand up, not a hand out” and in enabling individuals to take control of their lives.’

That’s exactly what I want, I said to myself, a hand up. And this time I’ll accept it.

The next bit stated that I had to ‘undergo an induction process and sign up to the code of conduct’. I knew the first bit meant that I’d have to work at a ‘trial pitch’, where my performance would be watched and assessed by the local organisers.

If that went well I’d be allocated a fixed pitch, it went on. I’d also get ten free copies of the magazine to get me started. It made it clear that it was then down to me. ‘Once they have sold these magazines they can purchase further copies, which they buy for £1 and sell for £2, thereby making £1 per copy.’

The rules went on to explain that vendors were employed by the Big Issue. ‘We do not reimburse them for magazines which they fail to sell, hence each individual must manage their sales and finances carefully. These skills, along with the confidence and self-esteem they build through selling the magazine, are crucial in helping homeless people reintegrate into mainstream society.’

That was the simple economics of it. But there was a lot more to it than that, as I would soon discover.

The next morning I headed back down to Covent Garden to see Sam, the coordinator. I was keen to get on with my ‘induction’.

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