The Chronicle of Matt ânâ Jimbo
I first met Jimbo shortly after my close friend Freddy Hemond died of a fentanyl overdose in New York City on 11/11/22. My first sight of him was him sleeping outside the Biomat building near Big Lots right off 13th street in Gainesville, Florida. I didnât think twice about it, I just thought he was just another homebum. My friend Casper, who had parked his RV in the Big Lots parking lot, had offered him some narcan and he came to hangout with all of us. All in all, there was me, Casper, Mariah, Chuck, Casey and Jimbo. Jimbo had his dog Brutus, a huge yellow husky-lab mix with aggression issues. We all sat around, recollected stories about Freddy, and drank a great deal. We sat on the curb and talked about life. Liz, Lucas, Sarah and Xanadu had ditched him at the Wawa because Brutus didnât get along with Lucasâ dog.
 A man approached us in the parking lot with a styrofoam cooler full of venison, saying his wife wouldnât let him bring it home. There was sausage, jerky, steaks, and ground venison. Jimbo suggested that me, him and Casey should hit up the Aldiâs dumpster, which we did. We found bell peppers, eggs, an entire box of bananas and another of dog food. I wanted to go home and grab my spices and seasonings and a few vegetables, since I lived very close by. I drove Casey and Jimbo to my house and told them to wait in the car. We fired up Casperâs camping stove and cooked up the venison, which was delicious. We progressively got more drunk, and Jimbo came out of his shell as soon as we had established we were both queers. I kissed Jimbo as we both lay in the parking lot mulch.Â
 Whenever he ran out of money, he would spange passerbys and try to look as pitiful as possible. He carried a corrugated plastic sign that said âTravelinâ Broke and Hungryâ with train tracks drawn into the corner. I sat with him at the corner of the Wawa while he begged for money. To my surprise, he made a good deal of money in a short time! I remember a middle-aged man with âJesusâ in a fancy cursive script tattooed above his left eyebrow giving us each 20 dollar bills. I was fascinated by his lifestyle and he knew a wealth of information about train riding. I asked him if he could show me how to hop freight trains and we formulated a plan to ride from Jacksonville to Miami in the time between my college semesters, since I had no Christmas break plans.Â
With the 20 bill, he sent me into the Winn-Dixie liquor store to get a bottle of liquor, since he had no ID. I came out with one of the largest bottles of vodka the store had. He liked Steel Reserves, or â211sâ as he called them, and was apprehensive when he saw the bottle of cheap vodka. We returned to the Wawa parking lot, where Casper was fueling the RV. Jimbo was standing outside the RV with Brutus. We got to drinking and Casper was speaking of driving out to Starke the same night, which I did not want to do. Casey had packed up all the spices in a box with all the camping gear, and by this point I was very drunk. I was mad at Casey for carelessly packing away my spices I used on an almost daily basis so I was arguing with him. I was so drunk and upset at him I left without saying goodbye to anyone. Jimbo chased me down and hugged me. And we promised to stay in touch.Â
I gave him the grand tour of downtown gainesville.We went behind St Francis house with some natty daddys and I asked him where he was from. Pittsfield, Massachusetts he said. We sat at the tables near the 4th ave food park. We went up onto the parking garage and talked for a long time.
The day of departure I drew my tarot. Temperance, Ace of Wands, Six of Swords. It seemed to be warning me. When Lanza pulled up I drank a shot of Kentucky Gentleman for Freddy and said a prayer to Hermes I had written for the occasion. O swift-footed Hermes, son of Maia, I supplicate unto you. Protector of travelers, messenger of the deathless Gods, make the path smooth before me. O guide of the souls of the dead, protect me from peril and harm. I triple-checked my pack. A sleeping bag, clothes in sealed plastic bags, emergency food, my sketchbook, toiletries, some booze, my altoids tin of weed, a knife, and some other comforts.
Lanza came down to take me up to Jacksonville on December 11, 2022. I stayed with him at his house and sat around watching tv until I got more word on Jimboâs whereabouts.
In the meantime, while Lanza was at work, I wandered around downtown Jacksonville. It was my first time on foot with all my gear, and it felt heavier than it did back at home. I took pictures of the interesting architecture. I slept in a park near Five Points in the afternoon. I was exhausted and didnât sleep well the previous night. Some stranger walked by me and said, âThatâs that fentanyl right thereâ. I kept remembering that tarot card. Temperance. I tried not to drink as much as possible.
Jimbo suggested that I should stay with his friend Kat who lived relatively near the hopout. She came to pick me up on December 14th around 2:30 pm. I went with her to her trailer. I stayed there for what seemed like an eternity while I waited for Jimbo, who was stuck down in Fort Pierce waiting on a train. He told me he was determined to come up as soon as possible to put me on a train. âI like you a lot bro, and I promise Iâm going to do everything in my power to get to you.â, he texted me. We were both so excited for Miami. Jimbo had bought tickets to see Dirty Rotten Imbeciles play in Jacksonville that night, but since he wasnât going to be able to make it up in time, suggested that Kat and I should go with the tickets for him. So we went downtown, and made it all the way to the venue, only to find out that the show had been cancelled due to one of the band members having an eye problem. Thus, we decided to just walk around Jacksonville at night. Kat didnât drink, but I most definitely did. We did a great deal of walking, and I was fascinated by the old beaux-arts architecture and the churches in particular. Kat took us back to the trailer park. Exhausted, and in a drunken stupor, I fell asleep on the living room couch while we watched Saw. The next day she drove me to the hopout behind winn-dixie and I painted on one of the pillars under the bridge âTHE ONLY HELL ON THIS EARTH IS THAT WHICH HUMANS MAKE.â
Jimbo arrived on the afternoon of the 16th and we hung out for a while at Katâs place, but she had to go to work so we sat on the street corner by circle k to fly a sign. He sat on the corner for a long time while I took baby hits off my one hitter. A school bus stopped to give him money. He walked on and there were kids on board, he thought it was fucking hilarious. Another person just threw a single quarter at us. âFor the spange godsâ, he would say, throwing a large handful of coins into the road, âAnything I throw comes back in big bills.â. He always managed to get just enough for what he needed, which was usually a 211 and a black and mild. We decided to get a bag of wine for our train ride.
Jimbo and I waited by the hopout under the bridge and waited for our train. After waiting for a while, our train pulled up. Our ride was a pigback underneath a semi truck trailer. âThrow all your shit on and grab Brutusâs leash and pull as hard as you canâ, he ordered me. We got on and as soon as it started moving we kissed each other in victory. âLetâs open that bag of wine!â I said. We sat with our backs resting on the truck tires and Brutus laid down between us on the central beam. Brutus had a blanket with a picture of a puppy that looked like him on it.Â
We rode for a while and shouted a conversation to each other while we watched the landscapes roll by. The weather was mild and the speed of the train caused a chilling wind to whip at our ears. The stars wheeled overhead as I held on to my belongings for dear life. âTrains put me to sleepâ, he said. I slept for a while due to the sheer emotional exhaustion combined with the bag of wine making us lightheaded.
I woke up and looked over at him. He was fast asleep. The train slowed down and I looked around for signs that would tell us where we were.
âHey, I think weâre in Hialeahâ I shouted to him. As the train slowed down we realized that some of our stuff had fallen off the train in the course of the night. My phone was gone, as was Brutusâ blanket and our bag of wine. We were more upset about the wine. âTrains take everything from meâ, he told me.
He looked around in panic as he realized the train had taken us right into the yard in full sight of two railyard bulls in white trucks. We got off the train and the weather was humid and hot, and it was probably in the early hours of the morning by then. We walked as quickly as we could but we saw the headlights of the bullâs truck drawing near us. He rolled down his window and said âNo, no no!âÂ
âWhich way is out? Which way do we go to get out of here?â
He pointed the way. He thought we were trying to hop on, when all we wanted to do was leave.
Jimbo kept saying âno, no, no!â and laughing.Â
We slept in a grassy lot near a bridge and a canal of some sort, right next to someoneâs front yard. The smell of dead possum wafted over us the whole night, but we were so tired we didnât care. Brutus woke us up barking at the cat that lived in the house nearby. We drifted back to sleep on the grass. I was awoken by small raindrops falling on my face. âJimbo, wake up, itâs raining.â
We went under a nearby bridge to escape the rain while we came up with a plan. We had to go to walmart, so I could get a replacement phone and so he could spange. After a long time I came out and he said âThat old lady over there is talking shit in spanish about me smoking and making disgusted faces at me. Old bitch. As sheâs literally sitting in the smoking area in front of walmart.â We laughed. âIâm going to the dollar store to get sunglasses, do you need anything?â âCould you grab some skin cream? My feet are chafing in these boots.â He shortly returned with the cream, some weird chicken and cheese chimichange in a plastic package, and large white sunglasses that amusingly clashed with the rest of his faded, tattered clothes . I didnât really want the chicken, but I put it in my backpack to be polite. âWe need to get on the Tri-rail to get down to south beach.â, he told me.Â
We got off the tri-rail in miami. Near the station here were dozens of bums hanging around in a park near the Miami-Dade Library, so naturally we both wanted to go somewhere else. He took out his water key and unlocked a spigot for us to fill our water jugs. We walked around downtown aimlessly for a while. There was a 7-11 Jimbo wanted to go to on 2nd street. When we reached it, we sat on our packs at the corner of the store and spanged the passerby. I took out my sketchbook and started doodling. We posted up in the gravelled area behind the 7-11 for a few hours. Jimbo went off to do something, I was too drunk to remember what. âThat guy over there is cute!â I told him. âHey, my friend here thinks youâre cute!â, Jimbo immediately shouted after him. A random stranger said âCatch!â and threw me a glass jar full of dried out delta-8 weed. I passed out and Jimbo took a photo of me asleep on my backpack against the red wall. He woke me up and said we should move to a better sleeping spot. He rolled out his tarp in an empty storefront on Flagler street across from Alberto Cortes Cosmetics and Chandi Liquors. I bought us a bottle of white wine. âI wanna save some of this for the morningâ, I told him. We talked for a long time. We were up until at least 4am, when some nearby event was letting out. As we wound down for the night groups of drunk people in tuxedos and fancy dresses passed us by, loudly blathering about something idiotic.
We woke up pretty early, around 8 in the morning.
To get to South Beach from downtown we needed to cross three bridges along the Macarthur Causeway, which was a two hour walk. The weather was overcast but unbearably hot and humid. We began walking and i felt exhausted. We passed several islands of nothing but ultra-modern mansions, which Jimbo said looked like shipping containers. We stopped to rest at a bus station, regretting our choice to not buy bus tickets beforehand.
There were two fishermen with lines in the water standing on the last bridge. âCatch anything?â I asked. âI havenât, but that guy over there hasâ He replied. The walkway was littered with bloody, rotting fish parts. We breathed a sigh of relief as we walked the last stretch of the bridge leading to the island of Miami Beach. Jimbo muzzled Brutus as we came up to the intersection of Alton Road and 5th street, where there were many pedestrians walking dogs. âThis is where I got his muzzle, actuallyâ, he told me. âI need to go fly, so can you take our phones and charge them in that Burger King?â Covered in sweat, I gladly agreed. I bought us both whoppers and held onto his while I waited for him to come back, which he soon did, setting down his gear on the only corner of the building without windows. While I was inside using the bathroom, a BK employee came out and aggressively swept the ground around Jimbo and probably said something rude to him. âBro, youâre the bouncer at a Burger King. Get over yourself.â, he said to me, laughing. A Miami Beach police officer pulled up to the BK, and Jimbo asked him if he had any patches or stickers. He said he had no patches, but gave us each a silver foil police badge sticker that said âMiami beach junior police officerâ on it.
I told Jimbo I wanted to see the beach. âWhat was the point of coming all the way down here if weâre not gonna even go to the beach?â I asked him, annoyed. âYou can go, but I canât take Brutus on the beach. This county kills dogs.â he said.Â
On the strip we slept on the street across from a hotel that had good wifi. Jimbo didnât make much money at that spot. He put his dog bowl out with his sign. A guy rolled up in a black car and said he would give him cash if he handed out fliers for his company. Jimbo agreed and the man gave him the small fliers, a bunch of change and a dollar bill that was so torn it would have only taken a small pull to tear in half. The man remained parked directly in front of us for another hour. âI canât wait for this guy to leave so I can stop holding these fliers.â As soon as he drove off Jimbo took them and stuffed them into a drain. âLetâs go.â
We passed Gianni Versaceâs mansion, whose gate was replete with gilt ornaments. âCan you imagine waking up in this place every day? Crazy.â I said.Â
We awoke to an extremely loud bang from a nearby construction site.