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By John C. Ensslin
Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer
John Bryant and his girlfriend, Katherine Livingston, share space on a steam-heated manhole cover alongside an RTD light-rail station at 14th and Stout streets.
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| Katherine Livingston and her boyfriend, John Bryant, share space on a steam-heated manhole cover on Stout Street. They have been friends for three years after meeting at a liquor store. |
They sleep uneasily, like a couple on a small storm-tossed raft.
All night, Bryant tries to persuade Livingston to come with him to his daughter's home in Denver.
Livingston wants to get a hotel room for the night, but she doesn't have the money. She had $40 but used most of it for booze.
"People shouldn't be sleeping here on the street!" Bryant yells at her as the train clangs past.
"People down by the river are getting killed! People sleeping on these grates are getting killed!...
"I'm trying to save her life and she doesn't understand."
None of this is getting through to Livingston.
"I'm an alcoholic," she says. "And if I have alcohol on my breath, the shelters won't let me in."
She curses and mutters under her breath.
"I ain't scared. I am not scared. If they kill me, I wouldn't care. I might be the next one," she says.
"It's not a joke," Bryant pleads.
He could leave alone for his daughter's home. But he won't.
"I can't," he says. "I can't leave her here, because something's going to happen to her."
For a fleeting moment, Bryant persuades Livingston to stand up and get on a bus to his daughter's home. But a few minutes later they're both back on the grate.
Alcohol has brought them here. Alcohol brought them together.
They've been friends for three years. They met outside the Argonaut Liquor store. He bought her some booze.
Now they're huddled on a grate outside the Denver City & County Building as the first snowfall of the season floats overhead.
An outreach worker for the Denver Rescue Mission stops by as he does most every night, trying to persuade the people on the grate to come into the shelter.
On this particular night, there are no beds for women. If that's the case, Bryant says, he won't go.
They get help sometimes. Monday night, a woman from the Denver Cares Detox brought Linda some boots where she sits outside city hall.
Earlier, a 16-year-old boy appeared in the same building on charges of first-degree murder in a homeless man's murder.
"They should fry him," Bryant says.
November 28, 1999
