Desperation Road(29)
Maben hadn’t noticed it but creeping up behind them in the southern sky had been thick gray clouds and still blocks away from the shelter they were startled with a snap of lightning and then came the thunder. The sunlight disappeared almost instantly and a moodiness fell around them and at a street corner Maben looked down to the left and she saw a pavilion and playground equipment and she pulled the child and said hurry on this way. They walked as fast as their tired legs would take them as the wind kicked up and then the first drops fell, fat drops that hit the pavement like nickels. They were nearly there when the bottom fell out and by the time they had made it under the pavilion they were as wet as if they had been dipped into a pool. Maben set the garbage bag on top of a picnic table and she shook her arms and head and the child did the same.
Gray hovered in every direction and it looked like they would be there for a while. Maben realized they were next to the cemetery. The rain washed the footprints from the playground slides and seesaws and puddles began to form in the holes that had been dug in the sandbox. Annalee walked over to the edge of the concrete where the drip from the roofline hit in tiny claps and held out her arms and let the water splash on her wrists. Maben sat down on top of a picnic table with her hand propped under her chin. She watched the rain bounce off the swing seats and then she turned and stared across the graveyard that sat next to the playground and she wondered whose bright idea it was to put the playground next to the graveyard. The gravestones looked slick in the rain and the red dirt of a fresh grave was turning to mud. The thunder roared and roared and there were quiet flashes of lightning and then the rain came harder and an unexpected gust of wind brought it to them. Annalee squealed and she ran over to her mother and Maben helped her up onto the table next to her and the rain beat on the pavilion roof and the sound of their desolation was even greater than it had been before.
The storm came on strong and then it left as quickly as it had arrived. They walked into downtown with steam rising off the sidewalks and streets. Shop owners set plants and sidewalk signs upright and at a café customers sat around tables eating toast and drinking coffee. Church bells rang from somewhere. Deep and resounding chimes that caused the child to look up into the sky. Maben switched the bag from shoulder to shoulder, both sides tired now. Curious eyes followed them. These wet and worn people. A big one and a little one. The blisters on Maben’s heels burning and bleeding. At the end of Main Street they ran into the railroad tracks and she was right. Broad Street ran with the tracks. Maben set the bag on the sidewalk and bent over with her hands on her knees and the child patted her on the back and said it’s okay Momma. Maben forced a smile at her and raised up and looked one way and then the other. No sign of Christian Ministries Family Shelter and she had forgotten the number. Only remembered Broad Street. There was nothing to do but keep walking. A police car eased up behind them and from the rolled-down window the officer asked if they needed anything and Maben said no. But then she asked about the shelter.
“Other way,” he said. “Hop in and I’ll take you down there.”
“That’s okay,” Maben said. “We’re wet.”
“Don’t matter.”
“We’re okay.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah.”
“All right,” he said and he drove to the end of the block and turned right.
They retraced their steps back three blocks to where they started and crossed the street. Several more blocks and they moved out of downtown and walked past hundred-year-old houses. Some with boards across the windows and sagging porches and some rejuvenated with paint and new roofs and flower beds. Up ahead at a depot an engine pushed a railcar into another railcar and there was the sound of clashing steel and after that Annalee walked with her eyes on the train cars and she was still watching them when her mother said this is it.
It looked like it might have once been a church or a schoolhouse. It was brick and rectangular and behind the front desk was a row of partitions that stretched to the back of the building and between the partitions were cots and small dressers and nightstands. The woman at the front desk wore her gray hair pinned on top of her head and she was small but sure when she looked at Maben and Annalee and asked them what they needed.
“We need a place to stay,” Maben said and she dropped the garbage bag on the floor next to the girl. The woman came from around the counter and bent down to the child and asked her if she wanted something to drink. Annalee nodded and the woman called out and a teenage girl appeared from an office to the right.
“Bring us some water. Towels, too,” the woman said and the teenage girl went back into the office and returned with two bottles. The first thing both Maben and Annalee did was to press the cold bottles to their foreheads. The grayhaired woman pointed them to chairs lining the wall and the three of them sat down. Maben rubbed the towel over her head and then did the same for Annalee.
The woman said that her name was Brenda and then she began asking questions that Maben answered. Hardly any answers the truth. Annalee drank in silence, finishing her bottle before her mother. When Brenda seemed satisfied that the woman and child legitimately needed the place she explained that they had room but that it was only temporary. She didn’t explain what that meant. Today is Friday and we’ll start your clock. There is a small kitchen but if you mess it up you clean it up. We got the basics, so don’t go looking for a menu. No men allowed into the building at any time. If that rule gets broke you’ll be asked to leave immediately. We can put two cots in the same room so that you and the child won’t be separated. There are showers and towels and soap. Washer and dryer. I’m here all day and somebody else comes in at night and the door locks at eight o’clock and you gotta have a password to be let back in. And if you want to work there’s a café downtown that will let you wash dishes and work in the kitchen.