Once there was a stranger without a place to rest for the night. He was destitute and slightly deranged. There were two shelters for the destitute and deranged in the vicinity. But as it was already five-thirty in the evening, the stranger would be unable to be placed in either of those. Finding a bed for the night, a shelter worker explained, is really a process that takes most of a day. No one is accepted after a certain hour of the afternoon. One should really start looking by at least ten-thirty in the morning.