by Gary Beck
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
It was difficult to get the children ready for school on the first morning of regular attendance. The group finally got them to the lobby at 7:15 a.m.., then waited and waited for the school bus. One of the interchangeable Mister Singhs kept admonishing the children to be quiet as they cheerfully chattered. At 7:45, when the bus still hadn’t arrived, some of the women took their children back to their rooms, but the group walked their children to school and escorted them to their classrooms. Then they went to the office and complained about the bus not showing up. Ms. Pastor remembered their last visit and promised to take care of the problem. They walked back to the hotel and Peter got ready to go to work. Hector phoned a temporary accounting agency, hoping for immediate employment. They asked him to come right in for an interview and he left the hotel with Peter. Kiesha wanted to go to the Borough of Manhattan Community College to register for the spring semester, so Beth and Miss Lily were left with the non-school children.
Miss Lily told the children stories for a while, then Beth gave them a reading and writing lesson. Miss Lily paid close attention to the lesson, because she wanted to be able to teach the children when Beth wasn’t there. It was a pleasant morning. Hector came back from his interview bubbling over about his first temporary accounting work assignment for Thursday and Friday. Kiesha got back in time for lunch and told them about registration. She was particularly pleased to have met one of her professors from her last semester, who urged her to study HTML and Java. He had insisted that she had the ability to become a programmer, if she persevered. She was thrilled at his expression of confidence in her. She glowed with pride as she babbled about the earning potential of programmers in the information age. Kiesha’s enthusiasm infected her friends, except Miss Lily, who looked a bit morose. When Kiesha asked her what was wrong, she confided that she was worried about the future, "You young people will succeed, but I don’t know what’ll happen to me and my kids."
Kiesha hugged her, "When I’m a rich programmer, I’ll give you the money to run a day care center."
At 3:15 p.m. Beth and Kiesha went downstairs to wait for the school bus. Other mothers lurked on the steps like ghosts and didn’t answer their hellos.
Beth had been thinking about what Kiesha said to Miss Lily. "I think you had a great idea."
"What?"
"About opening a day care center."
"I just said that to make her feel good. It’ll be a long time before I earn any money, let alone enough for a center."
"I know that. But between us we have nine kids and three of them aren’t old enough for school."
"So?"
"We know there are other mothers with children in the hotel. If we could get funding somehow, we could start a day care center now."
"Where are we going to get funding?"
"I don’t know. We’ll have to think about it. Maybe the Department of Homeless Services, or welfare would give us the money to take care of the kids. There might be a foundation or corporation that would help. If there are churches nearby, they might have a space that we could use. We could even do an after-school program that would give the kids something constructive to do until dinner."
Kiesha slipped her arm around Beth, "Missy, that sounds good to me."
The school bus was late, but not enough to get them worried. The ghost mothers collected their children and instantly disappeared. The group’s children seemed more at ease than the day before. Only Jennifer was still uncomfortable about being teased by her classmates. It seemed that her wearing the same clothes each day didn’t meet the style specifications of the local girls, and some nasty comments were made. Although Beth was upset for her daughter’s sake, she knew there was nothing she could do about it. She told Jennifer to just be patient until she could get new clothes.
Latoya turned to the unhappy Jennifer, "I’ll give you some of my clothes, until you get some of your own. Is that all right, Mama?"
Kiesha smiled approvingly, "Yes, baby. That’s what friends do." Feeling uplifted by Latoya’s generosity, the women took the children to the park and watched while they burned off energy in the playground. It was dark by the time they got back to the hotel, but Beth was aware of the tall apartment building across the street for the first time. It dwarfed the buildings around it and must have been fifty stories high. She made a note to take a good look at it in the morning, after they put the children on the school bus.
Dinner was a collective event. Miss Lily presided over the staff of young girls, who assisted in serving fish cakes and spaghetti, the most elaborate meal since arriving at the hotel. They brought Peter up to date on the day’s events and conversed casually over freshly brewed coffee. A neighbor down the hall stuck her head out and peered at them, but when Kiesha offered her coffee she ducked back inside. The late-night concert with its accompanying commotion began at the usual time, but the group managed to ignore it and slept soundly. Peter and Hector went to work the next morning and after the women put the children on the bus, they discussed the idea of establishing their own day care center. Beth mentioned that she could teach music to the older children and they indulged in a fantasy about what they would teach the children. They all agreed that math and languages were vital.
It was snowing lightly when the children returned from school, so the trip to the park was brief. When they got back to the hotel, they discovered that someone had entered their rooms and stolen several things, including some cash that Miss Lily kept in a drawer. They went down to the lobby and complained to one of the many Mr. Singhs, who blandly denied that the hotel had any responsibility for break-ins. Kiesha told him that it wasn’t a break-in, since whoever did it used a key. He insisted that all hotel keys were accounted for and suggested they speak to the resident social worker on the second floor. When they asked him why he hadn’t told them earlier about the social worker, he shrugged indifferently. They went to the social worker’s office and knocked repeatedly, but there was no answer. A sign on the door said the hours were 8 to 4. Since it was almost 5:00 p.m., they assumed the staff had gone home for the day.
Peter and Hector were very upset when they heard about the unforced entry into their rooms and Peter suggested that they should get padlocks in the morning. They managed to relax that evening, but when they went to bed, Peter wedged a chair in the door to prevent anyone from getting into the room. The nightly disturbance was quieter than usual, and they managed to get a good night’s sleep. Peter was reluctant to go to work in the morning, fearing another robbery, but Beth assured him that she would get a padlock when she went to get the cell phones. Hector made Kiesha promise to keep a careful eye on Pablo and Tito and he left the hotel with Peter, eager to go to his new job. Once the children were on the bus, the women had breakfast with the younger children, then Beth and Kiesha went to see the social worker. They knocked and knocked, but no one answered, even though it was after 8:00 a.m., Kiesha claimed that she heard someone moving inside, so they waited for a while, then knocked again. When they still didn’t get an answer, Kiesha shouted through the door, "We’ll be back, later."
They went on their errands and the morning passed uneventfully. Beth purchased three cell phones on a special plan that let them call each other free of charge. One was for her, one for Peter and one for Miss Lily, who would be the resident child sitter. Kiesha said that she and Hector would get the same phone system, as soon as they had the money. They visited the thrift shop and found several folding chairs, some TV trays and two padlocks with keys in a junk box. They stopped in the hardware store next to the thrift shop and bought two more padlocks and the hardware to install them. They made their way back to the hotel loaded with the new purchases that would give them some dining convenience and security. They ate lunch with the younger children and the new chairs and trays made them feel a little more human. The older children came home after school without any new traumas and all was calm when Peter and Hector returned from work.
Since there was no work and no school on
Saturday, the adults tried to sleep late, but the children were too used to getting up early to allow that. Beth and Peter did manage to loll in bed a little later than usual. Then Miss Lily surprised them by making french toast for everyone. Though less challenging than running a soup kitchen, it was no mean feat to cook for fourteen people on a hot plate. Miss Lily even had log cabin syrup for the french toast, avidly appreciated by the children. The group didn’t have a television set, so they couldn’t watch the inauguration of President Bush the younger, but they talked about the event. It turned out that Kiesha was indifferent to politics; Hector was a Bush man, having liked Bush the elder during Desert Storm; and Miss Lily was a lifelong democrat. Beth and Peter informed the others that they supported Ralph Nader and the Green party, which led to a discussion of who did more for the disadvantaged. They all concluded that presidential politics were very remote for people living in a welfare hotel.
Beth went to the thrift store and found some acceptable school clothes for Jennifer and some shirts and pants for Peter that were suitable for work. She bought a pair of jeans and a turtleneck for herself. The one thing she didn’t buy for any of them was underwear. She considered the possibility that perhaps she was being too squeamish for someone in her position, but dismissed the thought, deciding that she could afford one indulgence for pride’s sake. She brought her purchases back to the hotel and Jennifer was delighted to have some things of her own. Beth let her enjoy the new clothes without telling her that they were someone else’s castoffs. In the afternoon, far removed from the controversy that still shadowed the new president, they took the children to the park, while Bill Clinton’s conspicuous departure from Washington, D.C. eclipsed Bush junior. The children ran wild on the jungle gym and the girls were as active as the boys. Later, after they went to bed, the Saturday night party upstairs was particularly noisy. Despite their feeling of outrage, the group decided to endure the annoyance without risking a protest. They finally fell asleep when the commotion died down.
A snowstorm covered the city on Sunday and the group stayed in their rooms. They cleaned and straightened, making the place more habitable, building the illusion of a home. The girls played quietly, but when the boys got too restless, they were allowed to play in the hall. Miss Lily brought out a chair and fondly kept a watchful eye on them. Pablo and Raheen devised a mountain climbing game and led their faithful band up the stairs in an attempt to conquer Mount King Charles. They weren’t too noisy, so Miss Lily left them to their game until yelling broke out on an upper floor, followed by footsteps pounding on the steps above. The boys came rushing down the stairs, chased by some other boys carrying belts and bottles. Pablo and Raheen bravely defended the younger boys, as they retreated to their own floor, pursued by the cursing and screaming attackers. Miss Lily went to the staircase and Pablo and Raheen guided the younger boys past her to safety.
When the pursuing boys saw Miss Lily, they stopped in the middle of the staircase and she got a good look at them. She was horrified at seeing the young black boys, not much older than Raheen, who looked like wild little savages from Borneo. Their hair was unkempt, wooly and unwashed; their faces and bodies were filthy; they stank; the few items of clothing they wore were in tatters.
Miss Lily asked them gently, the way she would try to calm a wild animal, "Did these boys do anything to you?"
One of the boys wiped his runny nose on his arm, "They came to our floor."
"Did they hurt you, or take anything?"
"I told ya, they came to our floor."
"What’s wrong with that?"
"We don’t let no kids on our floor. We always fightin with the spic kids upstairs. They come to our floor; we kill em."
Pablo started to say something, but Miss Lily shushed him, "These boys didn’t know the rules and they didn’t mean to bother you. Did you ever see them before?"
"No."
"If they don’t come to your floor, do you think you could be friends?"
"Maybe."
"Do you boys go to school?"
"No." He turned and dashed upstairs and the other ragged urchins followed him.
Miss Lily led the boys back to her room, where the adults and the girls were waiting.
Pablo protested their innocence, "We didn’t do anything to them. We were just climbing the steps and they jumped us."
"What floor were they on?" Peter asked.
Pablo turned to Raheen, "It was the tenth floor, right?"
"Right."
Peter looked at the other adults knowingly and Hector instructed the boys, "Don’t go up there anymore."
"We were just playing. We didn’t do anything wrong," Andy said.
Miss Lily tried to soothe the agitated boys, "We know you didn’t do anythin wrong. This is a new place for all of us and we have to find out the rules. We just want to make sure you don’t get into trouble. Pablo and Raheen were very brave. So were the rest of you."
"I’m not afraid of them," Pablo said.
"Neither am I," Raheen added.
Miss Lily nodded approvingly, "That’s good, but we don’t want you fightin with them."
Once the boys calmed down, they started a game in Miss Lily’s room, while the adults discussed the new problem.
Hector was particularly upset. "Those kids come from the floor with the gambling and prostitution, right?"
Peter nodded, "Yes. They look like they’ve been neglected for months."
"It’s no surprise, living with that filth going on around them. Can you imagine what the adults are like?" Kiesha said.
"What are we going to do about it?" Hector asked.
Beth was quick to reply, "Nothing. We don’t need a feud with a gang of criminals. We’ll just keep our kids away from them."
"I’ll keep a much more careful eye on our kids," added Miss Lily. The rest of the day passed uneasily for the adults, but the boys seemed to have forgotten the incident. Later that night the disturbance was particularly loud and disruptive, as if confinement because of the snow made the partiers more restless. The group resented the noise more than on previous nights but did their best to ignore it. Sleep finally came when the upstairs activities ran out of energy.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
The work and school week started, and the group was beginning to feel the effects of insufficient sleep, crankiness and fatigue. Peter and Hector went to work and Kiesha started classes at BMCC. School had become uneventful for the children, who seemed to be gaining acceptance from their classmates. Beth and Miss Lily watched the younger children while the other adults were away. Miss Lily told and read stories in the morning, and Beth gave arithmetic lessons in the afternoon. When the older children came home from school, they all went to Madison Square Park. The jungle gym was covered with snow, so they couldn’t use it. The children still had too much energy for the confines of the tiny hotel rooms, so Beth suggested that they walk up Fifth Avenue and look at the Empire State Building. Beth explained to the children that for a long time it had been the tallest building in the world.
Pablo asked with his usual keenness, "What’s the tallest building now?"
"I don’t know the name of it, but I think it’s in Kuala Lumpur."
"Where’s that?"
"It’s in a country called Malaysia."
"How come it’s not in America?" Raheen asked. "I guess it’s not as important to us to have the tallest building as it used to be."
Snow was still piled on the sidewalks leaving a narrow lane for walking. The streets were crowded, and local employees and shoppers kept bumping into the children, until Miss Lily formed them into a convoy. Judging from the way people stared at the group, they were obviously not passing for tourists. They got their first good view of the Empire State Building from 32nd Street, and they paused on the corner to appreciate it. The closer they came, the more massive the building looked, and the children were finally impressed.
"Can we go to the top?" Jennifer asked.
The other children chorused
, "Yes. Yes."
Beth felt terrible saying no, "It’s very expensive and we can’t go today, but maybe sometime next week."
The children, already veterans of deprivation at a tender age, didn’t make a fuss. After they looked their fill, they slowly walked back towards the hotel. They passed a coffee shop and on an extravagant impulse, feeling guilty about not being able to afford the observation tower, Beth took them in for hot chocolate.
Kiesha was waiting when they got home, and Peter and Hector returned from work a little later. After dinner, Kiesha, Peter and Hector took turns and told the others about their day. Beth was envious that they were doing more than babysitting and made a mental note to start job hunting as soon as possible. She wasn’t optimistic about finding work as a music teacher since the school term was already underway, but it was worth trying. She knew there was no chance of finding paying pupils in the hotel, even if she had a piano. She mentioned that she and Miss Lily had stopped at the social worker’s office and knocked and knocked but got no answer.
"I hope she’s enjoying a social life somewhere," Kiesha quipped. They all went to bed early and managed to get some sleep before the nightly disturbance started. The rap music was particularly loud and even the children couldn’t sleep through it. The noise abated about threea.m.and they managed to snatch a few hours of sleep before school and work time. Tuesday was very much like Monday, except for growing sleep deprivation. The group was beginning to fall into a routine, however unnatural.
Beth and Peter went to the fire department hearing Wednesday morning that was held not far from city hall. It was a stormy session, presided over by a panel of fire marshals. The landlord ranted and raved about how his illegal tenants caused the fire by careless use of their stove. When one of the fire marshals asked him how he knew that, the landlord blustered that it was the only explanation that made sense. Peter testified that he woke up, smelled smoke and immediately started to evacuate his family. He had no idea what started the fire, but he insisted that he and his wife didn’t cause it.