While adrift on the streets, thinking of escape to Afghanistan

Ian Daniels EVAN WILLIAMS / FLORIDA WEEKLY Ian Daniels was carrying a copy of “The Talisman,” a novel by Stephen King and Peter Straub, among the clothes and other things he totes with him. It’s an interim period for Mr. Daniels, 19, who decided to endure homelessness for a while — it’s been more than a week — before moving back home or joining the Army. With plenty of free time, he’s been making good progress reading “The Talisman.” The hero of the novel is a teenager named Jack Sawyer who can travel between parallel universes.

“I just read two pages ago that he found out there are endless amounts of them (parallel universes), with basically the same people but with different names, like a collective consciousness,” Mr. Daniels said.

Strolling past Starbucks in downtown Fort Myers Monday morning, Mr. Daniels looked contemplative with his long, curly hair and eyes focused on the horizon.

He would miss his classes that morning at a nearby technical school where he is learning to be a welder.

“I’ve got to figure out what I’m going to do,” he said. “I’m basically just chilling out here, looking for odd jobs.”

After sleeping mostly outside for a week and a half, hustling for odd jobs and relying on the goodwill of friends for food, he is considering escape to a few parallel universes of his own. One is his parents’ house in South Fort Myers. He seems understandably hesitant to go back there, where he’ll have to explain his mishaps and adventures to his parents, and probably to his two sisters. Another option is joining the Army.

“I know I can always knock on the Army’s door,” he said. “I don’t have to do this anymore.”

He might ship out to Afghanistan, Mr. Daniels figures. “That’s where I’d want to go,” he said. “All those troops getting sent out, getting sent out there and dying. I’d like to think I could at least be a part of it. Ever since I was little, you know, I’ve always wanted to be an Army man. If I can help one guy to survive, I think it would be totally worth it. If I survived my first tour, I’d probably make a career out of it and do the full course of tours and get a nice paycheck every month.”

He plans to parachute out of airplanes, “where you’re actually jumping out of planes behind enemy lines,” he said. “When it comes to the Army, I don’t want to be pushing a broom.”

Two of his uncles were in the army. And one of his sisters, who is 16, is a top marksman in Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, Mr. Daniels bragged.

“She’ll be jumping way past my rank,” he said. “I’ll be joining the Army pretty soon, depending on what happens — if I find another job pretty soon, how well that job pays.”

Mr. Daniels was born in Bonita Springs and graduated from South Fort Myers High School in 2008. After that he moved to a large apartment complex near Florida Gulf Coast University, where he ended up with an overdrawn bank account and at least a couple of hangovers.

“I probably partied way too much,” he said. “It was just close friends having fun. Everyone in all those hundreds of apartments, we all knew everybody there. It was a great atmosphere. They were just a bunch of college kids. They pretty much did their own thing. You’d be walkin’ around with your buds, and it’s like everyone out here, we know. So everyone just meets up.”

He worked at Starbucks in downtown, and also at Howl, an art gallery and tattoo parlor, but was laid off until the economy improves. With only $2,000 to his name, he kept it at his apartment, until it ended up being stolen.

“That’s what I was hoping to sustain me,” Mr. Daniels said.

He’s not sure what direction to take next, what universe to walk into, either his parents’ house, the technical school, the Army, or to just sit and read about Jack Sawyer for a while.

Meanwhile, one of his best friends is away at New College of Florida in Sarasota. Over the holidays, they might get a chance to get together again and play the music they’ve grown up enjoying. Mr. Daniels likes to play piano and his friend plays guitar. Some of his favorite groups include indie rockers like Animal Collective, Colour Revolt, The Shins and Modest Mouse.

“The really underground bands are pretty good,” Mr. Daniels said.

He is leaning toward spending Christmas at home with his family.

“This is hopefully my last day doing this,” he said. “I really didn’t have to stay here (on the streets), as long as I did. It’s pretty much just seeing what the life is like, these guys who just chill out here.” 