Out of the eight story lines that I have followed in Evicted, Scott's has impacted me in a way different from the others. For many of the tenants that I've followed, the life that they live was in some way not their fault. They were abused by boyfriends, their parents brought them into poverty, or they had a child who they struggled to support. I feel for all of them, in the sense that things that I do not even need to think about are struggles for them to obtain.
Scott didn't start out in poverty. He was a well educated, kind, and respected nurse. Like Lamar, Scott fell into trouble through drugs... something that terrifies me a lot. Lamar was a soldier in the navy, and when he returned from war his demands were not met. He turned to drugs, which eventually led him to crack. Lamar was able to get clean and provide a somewhat normal life for his children, but Scott's journey was quite different.
Scott, as he says, always had a knack for caring for elderly people. His job at a nursing home made him feel needed. After a long five years of lifting and carrying patients, Scott threw out his back and was forced to depend on painkillers to live without intense pain. He began to buy painkillers from other patients and soon switched from Percocet to fentanyl; a much stronger drug.
Scott soon lost his job from this behavior he executed while addicted. His nursing license was suspended, but a that point Scott's attitude was, in his own words, "Fuck it" (84). He lost his home, and ended up at a homeless shelter where he met Teddy; an old man who Scott decided he needed to care for. However, Scott couldn't outrun his addiction, and it caught up with him. He met with two heroin addicts, and everything went out the window.
Scott had two friends than died from AIDs, and he promised himself to never do heroin because of that. However, the pull was too strong and he fell back into the trap.
At this point in my book, I do not yet know Scott's full story. As of now, Scott and Teddy received an eviction notice, so Teddy moved away to live with relatives. Scott is left alone; unable to fend for himself. He has fought off addiction, but I worry he will go back down the path of loneliness. One of my biggest fears is drug addiction, because Scott knew in his heart that drugs were consuming him... but he couldn't stop. My only hope for him is that he is able to pull through his sorrows and live without numbing the pain.
I would say I'm excited to continue reading, but this book is honestly depressing me. I feel horrible that I am able to live so easily compared to the eight families in this book. They struggle just to meet their most dire needs, and reading about this struggle is very enlightening yet sad. I hope that by the end of this book at least one family/character will have reached their happy ending.
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