Desperation Road(30)

Then she asked what was in the bag.

“Everything,” Maben said.

The garbage bag had punctured and torn and clothes pushed out of the holes.

“Let me get you something else,” Brenda said.

“No,” she said and she pulled it toward her. “This is fine. Can you show us our spot?”

“That’s easy enough seeing as you’re it right now. Had one woman run off God knows where over the weekend and another end back up with her boyfriend. Same one she ran from in the first place. It never ends. You can pick wherever you like. All the spots are about the same size. You might want to get toward the back, though, cause the train don’t tiptoe when it comes through.”

They picked a spot in the back close to the kitchen and the bathrooms and underneath a tall window because Annalee wanted to see the moon when she lay down to go to sleep. Maben dug through the bag and pulled out dry clothes for both of them and they changed. She wanted to unpack the entire filthy wad but had nowhere to put the pistol so she shoved the bag underneath her cot. She went into the bathroom and washed her face and she wet a cloth to wipe Annalee’s face but when she returned Annalee had fallen asleep. Maben touched the cloth to the child’s forehead and then she put it down and she lay down on the cot next to the child and the walking and the worry caught her and she closed her eyes and dreamed of sirens and strange men doing whatever they wanted to do with her and she awoke with a quick shout. She looked around. Figured out where she was. Looked at the child who hadn’t been bothered by her mother’s shout and slept on.

Maben stood up and went into the bathroom and she sat down on the toilet. Buried her face in her hands. Began to breathe as if she’d climbed the stairs of a tall building. She felt herself beginning to sweat and she stood off the toilet and paced back and forth in front of the mirror. Tried to calm herself by humming and then singing but she couldn’t think of a song so she turned on the faucet and splashed water on her face and told herself to breathe like a normal human but that was damn near impossible.





20


MABEN LEFT ANNALEE ASLEEP AND SHE WALKED BACK TO THE front to talk to Brenda who was sitting behind the counter reading the newspaper. Brenda lowered the paper and asked her if she needed something.

“That café,” Maben said. “Something to do.”

“You gonna have to use sentences,” Brenda said and she folded the paper and set it aside.

“You said something about some work.”

“It ain’t glamorous,” Brenda said. “I can call down there and tell them you’re coming. You out of money?”

“No. I got twenty dollars or so.”

“Then you’re out of money.”

“Can you watch Annalee?”

Brenda turned up her nose. “Not usually. But since ain’t nobody else here I will.”

“She’s sleeping right now.”

“Fine.”

Brenda picked up the telephone and called the café and told them she was sending someone down there to do whatever they need her to do. Maben thought that the woman put it perfectly. That it had long since been a theme. The woman hung up and gave her directions. Walk back down to Main. Turn right. Go one block. Turn right on Broadway. Two or three buildings down on the right. Maben thanked her and went on her way.

She found it easily and a man named Sims met her at the door. He wore an apron and he had a towel slung over his shoulder and a pen behind his ear. The café was empty in the midafternoon except for a man in overalls who sat at the counter drinking coffee. Sims asked her if she could wash dishes and she said yes and he took her into the kitchen. She spent the afternoon washing dishes and mopping the kitchen floor and taking out the garbage. Whichever way Sims pointed her. In a few hours she said she had to go see about her kid and he opened the register and took out an envelope and handed her a twenty-dollar bill and she had doubled her wealth.

“You did good,” he said. “If you want to come back tomorrow, come on.”

She folded the twenty in her hand. “You not open tonight?” she asked.

“It’s Friday night. No reason not to be,” he said.

“Can I come back later then?”

He shrugged. “I suppose. If you want.”

She said okay and then she walked back to the shelter and she found Annalee sitting on the floor with Brenda and the teenager who had brought them the water. Each of them with coloring books. She knelt and kissed the top of Annalee’s head. She was hungry and she made a sandwich in the kitchen and she walked back to the front and sat down with them and noticed that the child had gotten better at staying between the lines.

Brenda looked at her watch. “I got to go here in a minute. New girl comes in and stays from now ’til the morning.”

“She had anything to eat?” Maben asked as she nodded at Annalee.

“About two dozen Oreos.”

Brenda and the teenager stood up and went into the office and Maben relaxed while the child colored a bear with blue fur and green eyes. Ten minutes later another woman came in the door. A young black woman with a big purse. Maben stretched her legs out straight and listened to the women trade thoughts about the day and the upcoming night. Then she slipped off her shoes and pressed her thumbs hard into the bottoms of her feet. Annalee sat with her legs crossed and Maben asked her if they hurt.