Gary Brandt delivers one of his most socially conscious and eye-opening chapters yet in this episode from The Dimension Of Mind Dot Com when a simple walk home from school becomes an unexpected anthropological expedition into the hidden world of homelessness.
Starting with typical teenage concerns about forty-degree weather and heavy winter coats, the girls encounter Bernard—an elderly man struggling with heavy bags who initially suspects them of being young drug seekers looking to score.
The brilliant twist emerges when Bernard reveals himself not as a homeless addict but as an anthropological writer conducting immersive research by living among 'throwaway people'—those discarded by society for being gay, mentally ill, addicted, or otherwise deemed undesirable.
His explanation that addiction isn't the cause but a symptom of underlying mental illness provides profound insight, while his warning about neighborhoods as psychologically damaging as war zones adds real-world gravity to their supernatural adventures.
The interaction perfectly showcases Brandt's talent for using his characters' psychic abilities as vehicles for social exploration rather than mere fantasy elements.
But the real brilliance unfolds when they venture into 'Abe-Camp'—a hidden forest community with its own tribal structure and parasitic economy that survives entirely by extracting resources from the surrounding modern culture through theft, government assistance, and barter systems using drugs and cigarettes as currency.
The encounter with Mabel, a former model turned addict who matter-of-factly discusses 'trading favors for the good stuff,' provides heartbreaking human context to academic discussions of homelessness, while Bernard's comparison to indigenous cultures reveals his deeper fears about societal collapse and the need to preserve survival knowledge for catastrophic events around 2053.
Helana's psychic insight that Bernard is essentially preparing for civilization's failure transforms him from research subject to potential recruit, while the girls' military security extraction—complete with Eileen's cop mother arriving with flashing lights—reminds us that their supernatural family operates within very real governmental oversight.
Ella's defiant diary entry perfectly captures teenage determination meeting adult responsibility: she doesn't care about getting 'chewed out' because she's discovered a parallel society that challenges everything she thought she knew about her comfortable suburban world, and she's going back to learn more despite warnings not to 'romanticize their dysfunction.'