They were called retablos, she explained, thank-you notes to Jesus or the Virgin in the form of crude illustrations of miraculous cures or life-saving interventions.

Kate had let him out on Portrero Avenue, a short walk from San Francisco General Hospital, a massive brick and glass building that promised nothing but bureaucratic indifference to a destitute man with a suspicious psychiatric problem

The first shelter Darren managed to get into was located in the Tenderloin, a very tough part of town.

Against the clear night sky he could see the illuminated top of the Transamerica tower presiding over the miserable sum of all his woes.

One Saturday afternoon, when he and Billy shared a blanket in Dolores Park, Billy asked him how his job search was coming.

“Something totally different. A Dolly Parton medley.”

No telling where he might be, but Saturday’s Bay to Breakers, and he’s probably going to be at the Panhandle scavenging like he always does.

He’s the one the city sends to go after BANG.

Part of the Bay to Breakers footrace, a traditional rite of spring in the city, ran along The Panhandle, the long narrow park between Fell and Oak.