Saint Joseph's Women's Shelter
It wasn't a particularly big building, but it was sizeable enough to temporarily house 76 women and
children. But it just had to be on such an evening, an evening where the temperatures were into the
eighties past 9 p.m. , that the beloved air-conditioner would end up going on the fritz.
All around inside the large room where everyone was gathered were twin sized beds where mothers,
black, white and Hispanic, were all fanning themselves while either trying to keep control of their
wandering children or watching one of the two televisions that was playing. The smell of the room
consisted of underarm odor and soiled diapers. It was stuffy and humid, and the shrill noises of little
ones crying and whining only made the already miserable situation all the more excruciating.
Clear in the back of the room, next to the kitchen, was one older, black lady, Audra, one younger, white
woman, Meredith and an old, black man, Clyde. All three were huddled at the fuse box. Both Audra and
Meredith were gawking at the various switches, while Clyde, with his flashlight, kept flicking switches
from left to right in an attempt to revive the ill-fated cooling system.
"Maybe there's something downstairs that blew out." Audra suggested while taking glances back and
forth from the fuse box to the increasingly impatient crowd in the other room.
"I don't think messing with those fuses is gonna help much of anything." Meredith moaned.
Without giving her so much as an eyeball, Clyde continued doing what he was doing while irritably
saying, "Woman, I served in Iwo Jima for two years! I can handle this!"
Audra and Meredith just gave each other the most nonchalant stares as if to say the old man were
more off his rocker than first believed.
"You were a cook in Iwo Jima, Clyde." Audra twisted her lips.
"I still served!" Clyde fired back before pulling away from the fuse box. "I'm going downstairs to see
something!"
Audra and Meredith just sniggered as Clyde turned and stormed away down into the cellar. "Is it me or
does he get more cantankerous with every passing day?" Meredith laughed out loud.
"Child, that man was born that way." Audra laughed back as she began for the living area with Meredith
following in behind.
Both women stood at the threshold and observed with concerned eyes the gathered humanity that
seemed to be on the brink of melting down at a moment's notice. All Audra could do was shake her
head in dismay while fanning her face.
"And all that mayor of ours wants to do is build a subway." She griped.
"Today it's a subway system, tomorrow it'll be football stadium." Meredith glumly stated.
Audra continued to eye the masses before she patted Meredith on the shoulder and said, "Why don't
we try our best to calm these folks down before someone attacks someone else?"
"You think we should get more milk from downstairs?" Meredith asked.
"No, let's save that for later." Audra sighed. "Lord knows we need to ration what we still have left."
Audra then reached over to the wall where a tablet was hanging by a single nail. She took the tablet
and began reading off names that were listed from top to bottom on the page. "I think we'll skip roll call
for tonight." She studied the page. "But I am curious about a couple of people that signed out early
though."
"Who are they?"
"Umm...Florence Gates and her three kids. She signed out about eight this morning, and she knows
good and well that those doors are locked by eight p.m."
"I remember her saying that her mother may have an extra room for her and the kids. I'm not too sure
though." Meredith pondered.
"Okay, but then there's Lynnette Glover. She signed out yesterday evening."
"I know, but she was in such a rush to get out of here that she didn't even bother to tell me when she
was or if she was even coming back."
Audra pressed her lips in a dismal fashion. "Hmm, that poor little thing, she doesn't need a shelter, she
needs rehab."
"She sure looked like she did." Meredith added before going out into the crowd.
Audra studied the tablet a bit longer before placing it back onto the wall and taking a long gander at the
weary multitude, from women fanning themselves and their children, to little ones running in reckless
abandon like they were outside.
There was a side of Audra that felt sympathy for the ones gathered inside the crumbling building. The
fact that their lives were so disheveled that being inside an overcrowded shelter was to be their final
resort caused Audra to feel even more remorse for them, and less for herself. Losing just one individual
was a tragedy.
From one end of the room to the other her eyes scanned before she caught sight of a little black girl
being knocked to the floor by two little black boys. Immediately, Audra skated over to the crying child
and helped her up from off the floor.
"There, there now." Audra soothed the girl. "Let me see if you're hurt."
"It was those heathen brothers of hers that knocked her down!" A plump, black lady fumed from behind
Audra.
Carefully scooting the girl back over to the bed where her mother was seated, Audra examined the
child's body from top to bottom.
"Did you hurt yourself, honey?" Audra asked.
"I banged my knee." The girl sniffed.
"I told those fools to stop all that runnin' around!" The mother continued to rant.
Smiling, Audra said, "Oh well, these youngens don't know what else to do." She then reached into her
apron's pouch and pulled out a Band-Aid. "I carry these around everywhere I go." Audra commented.
"They come in real handy in these situations." Gently, Audra placed the bandage on the girl's knee.
She then happened to glance at one of the two televisions that were playing in the area. The one set
that was nearest to them was running 'Good Times'. Audra just giggled, "Lord, I stopped watching that
once they got rid of James."
Snickering right back, the mother replied, "Shoot, I thought he really was dead until I saw him on
'Roots' some months ago."
"It's just not the same show without him." Audra protested. "It's too bad we only have four, six and ten
on these TV's."
"I know, girl, I hate it when they replace characters like that. They did the same with 'Sanford and Son'
when Fred left."
The two ladies continued on and on before Audra extended her hand and stated, "My name is Audra
Watson. When I'm not here, I volunteer down at St. Phillips Hospital."
"My name is Jo-Ann, and this my youngest, Andinika. Her brothers are runnin' around here
somewhere, the little bad-asses."
Audra just grinned and said, "I'm sorry for not having any air in here. The city keeps promising to give
us a new air-conditioner, but that promise was made last summer."
"Girl, it was the city that had us evicted from our apartment all because they wanted to tear down our
building."
"That's awful." Audra lamented.
Stroking Andinika's braided hair, Jo-Ann said, "Yep, they gave us one week to move out. And here we
are. President Carter can tell everyone to conserve energy, but he can't save folks' homes."
Looking around, Audra sighed, "I know what you mean, but it's all we have for now."
Placing her hand upon Audra's, Jo-Ann compassionately responded, "Girl, if all me and my kids have
to worry about is a broken air-conditioner, then we've been truly blessed." Jo-Ann then began to
unravel and comb Andinika's hair while the television went to a newsbreak commercial. Staring up at
the TV, Jo-Ann asked Audra, "Did you hear about those folks that were killed in that school yesterday?"
Audra turned around and watched remorsefully as the newscaster reported on the murders. "It just
seems that this poor city keeps getting worse and worse by the day." She groaned.
"What do you think could have done that?" Jo-Ann frowned.
"I can't imagine that those people were running away from or were killed by a pack of dogs." Audra
thoughtfully stated.
"Uh, uh, girl, something else got in that school and did that. It just seems like this city is coming to an
end. Something very ugly got those people."
"Mama, can dogs kill people?" Andinika turned and asked.
Grinning and rolling her eyes, Jo-Ann said, "Only the bad ones, child."
All of the sudden, the electricity in the entire building went out simultaneously; sending a chorus of
moans and cries throughout.
"I bet that fool Clyde ended up cutting some wires that didn't even need to be cut in the first place."
Audra anxiously complained. "That's all we need right now."
"I know, my kids are scared to death of the dark." Jo-Ann said as she held Andinika close to her chest.
"Let me go next door and see if I can call the power company." Audra suggested as she began to get
up from off the bed.
"Look, mama, there's the devil." Andinika's little finger pointed behind Audra at a woman who was
seated in a corner with two, bright, glowing eyes pointed right back at them in the darkness of the
shelter.
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