It's a freezing-cold Sunday afternoon, and a fight is breaking out in Harvard Square.

After working the door to the Mass. Ave. CVS for several hours, frenetically calling out to pedestrians and firing rapid compliments to passing ladies, panhandler John Jones vacates his spot at 4 p.m. sharp, leaving the coveted position open for fellow-panhandler Alice to walk up and begin working.

"Hey!" exclaims Michael Shorey, watching with a cup in hand from the entrance of the nearby BankBoston, "I've been waiting for that spot all day. What...is up with that?"

Exaggeratedly shrugging her shoulders and shaking her head, Alice grins and begins asking passersby for spare change.

Angry and impatient, Shorey complains, "CVS is the best spot on this side of the Square, even better than Store 24."

Shorey says he usually stands in front of CVS or at the bank for eight to ten hours a day and makes "nothing less than $60 a day."

New City, No Home

Shorey says he has been working the Square for a couple of months, after leaving his dishwashing job in Maine to help a friend move.

"We got in a fight and so now I'm staying with different people," Shorey says.

When asked who these people are, Shorey looks down and confides "I meet them in bars."

"I would say, yeah, I'm an alcoholic," Storey continues. "I usually go to a bar every other day."

Explaining his daily routine, Shorey says he eats breakfast at McDonald's every morning after leaving his apartment and then grabs a midday snack from C'est Bon while working, unless a passerby gives him food instead of money.

The best days are Thursdays through Mondays, Shorey explains, because Thursday is payday, and the tourists help on Saturday and Sunday.

Shorey complains that "a lot of people don't think I need the money 'cause I dress too well, 'cause I shower and dress nice."

"What do they want? Should I sell my Nautica jacket?" Shorey asks. "Do they want me to freeze to death?"