Questing for a Dream, page 16
“Who are you?”
Nadie looked to her left, at a boy who had spoken to her. He was tall, blond, one of the few who didn’t appear to have any Indigenous blood in him. Nadie put him at sixteen or seventeen. “Oh… I’m new,” she told him awkwardly.
“I can see that. When did you get here?”
“Uh… last night.”
“They made an emergency apprehension last night?” he asked, frowning.
“No. I just… I just was going to the emergency shelter to see if they could help. And I met one of the girls here…”
“Holly.”
“Yeah. So I just talked to CFS this morning… I don’t know if I’m staying here yet…”
“They give you a room?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Then you’re staying.” He thrust his hand out toward her. “Best.”
Nadie stared at him.
“Noah Best. My name. Do you have one?”
“Oh. Uh.” Nadie had to stop and think about it. “Tonya.”
“Tonya. Holly pick that out? I thought we had a Tonya a few months ago.”
Nadie shrugged. She didn’t know anything about any other Tonya. The boy chuckled.
“Holly’s around here somewhere. I saw her with that butch girl.”
“Mitchell?”
“Yeah. Her.” Best looked up and down the street. “You know, they probably went for coffee. I’ll show you.”
“Thanks.”
Nadie fell in beside him, walking down the street in the direction she thought the emergency shelter was in. Nadie realized suddenly that she was trusting this boy to help her without knowing anything at all about him. He knew who Holly was and had offered to help, and she just assumed he was a trustworthy person. She was in an unfamiliar, dangerous place, and she didn’t even have her pocket knife anymore.
Best looked back at her questioningly when she slowed. “It’s just up here. What’s wrong?”
Nadie dragged her feet. They were still on a busy street. There were plenty of people around if he tried to drag her into a car or a back alley. If she screamed, surely people would help.
“Come on!” He smiled, raising his eyebrows. He reached to take her by the arm, but when Nadie jerked back, he raised both hands in an ‘I’m innocent’ gesture. “I’m not going to hurt you, Tonya. Just helping out another kid getting screwed over by the system. Holly’s probably down here,” he pointed at the sign for a small, independent coffee shop half a block away. Not one of the big chains. “If you don’t want me to come, then I won’t.”
Nadie looked at him and looked at the little cafe. By the looks of the sidewalk sign and how close the shops were together, it was a tiny place. She didn’t particularly welcome the possibility of Best blocking the doorway behind her, boxing her in with Holly and Mitchell. Or maybe not even with Holly and Mitchell. There might be someone else in the little coffee shop. Someone who didn’t have Nadie’s welfare in mind. Best took a step back, seeing his answer in Nadie’s eyes.
“Okay. Fine. I’ll back off. You check and see if they are there. If they aren’t, just come back to the hotel. We’ll track them down. If they’re not just getting coffee, maybe they headed over to the mall.” He looked at a big gold watch on his wrist. “Maybe not the mall, the stores are not open yet.”
Nadie shuffled past him, wary of being grabbed. He stayed back and left her alone. Nadie walked on by and headed for the coffee shop. She glanced back over her shoulder to ensure he was not following her. He headed back the way they had come, back to the hotel. Nadie checked out the little cafe before going in. It was small, as she had suspected. Only a few patrons inside. The smell of the coffee was deep and rich. Her stomach started to grumble about not being fed yet. Holly and Mitchell were standing at a counter talking, big disposable coffee cups in their hands. Nadie glanced around once more to be sure Best hadn’t followed her and she wasn’t walking right into an ambush and went in.
“She’s back,” Mitchell commented.
Holly turned around and saw Nadie. She gave a big smile. “There you are! Sorry we didn’t tell you where we went. Didn’t think we’d be long.”
“That’s okay. A blond boy pointed me in the right direction. Best.”
“He’s the best,” Holly joked, letting out a sharp bark of laughter at her own joke. “So, how did it go? Todd give you a room?”
“Yeah. He said he still had to talk to the others about it, though.”
“Aw, if you got a room, you’re in. The rest is just formality.” She looked Nadie over. “Already showered and ready to go?”
With no toiletries but the small shampoos on the counter at the hotel, Nadie didn’t exactly feel ready to face anything else. She had finger-combed her hair but knew it wasn’t sufficient. She still felt like a mess. And she was hungry.
“Go where?” she asked. “What else do I need to do?”
“We’ll go over to the mission. They should be done clearing out the lice-carriers by now.”
Holly indicated the door and they all started to head out.
“What are we going to the mission for? I’ve got a bed now, so I don’t need to, do I?”
“You got a bed, but there’s other stuff you’re going to need. CFS is so backed up, they’re not going to get you anything for weeks.”
“Oh. Okay.”
They were at the emergency shelter in a few minutes. There were a lot of people congregated on the sidewalk, talking to each other, laughing, some of them arguing. The homeless who had been sleeping on the sidewalk seemed to be gone, or they were part of the crowds of people standing around. Holly motioned for Mitchell to go ahead of her, and Mitchell barreled through the sea of homeless, pushing and elbowing her way through. Holly followed in her wake, ignoring the complaints of people who didn’t appreciate being shoved out of the way. Nadie murmured apologies as she passed through. When they got up to the door, Holly reached back and pulled Nadie in front of her, so she was sandwiched between Mitchell and Holly with nowhere to go. Mitchell pressed on through the staff and homeless still lingering inside the building. They eventually reached a small office. A woman with long, straight, sandy colored hair was answering phones while she wrote down and filed information. Nadie wondered how she could keep it all straight in her head to do it at the same time.
The woman hung up the phone and looked at the three girls. “What can I do for you?” she asked pleasantly.
Holly spoke up. “This is Tonya. She got kicked out in the middle of the night last night. We got her a place to sleep, but she doesn’t have nothing. Not even a toothbrush.”
Nadie’s face got hot. She looked down at the worn, red, patterned carpet.
“Hi, Tonya. I’m sorry to hear about your trouble,” the woman said in a sincere voice. “Let’s see what we can do for you, shall we?”
Nadie shrugged. “I don’t want to be any trouble. I can make do.”
“No, no. It’s no trouble. That’s what we’re here for!” The woman stood up from her desk. “I’m Jennifer.” She put her hand out to shake Nadie’s, then she pushed all of her hair back over her shoulders so it was behind her. There was a slight sheen of sweat on her face. “Follow me.”
She took them back out into the hall, which was slowly clearing.
“Let’s move along, people. No congregating in the hallways. If you need counseling, set up an appointment.”
People moved out of the way, most of them giving Jennifer a nod or smile. But there were a few angry scowls as well. Jennifer ignored or didn’t see them and breezed by. They got to a locked door and Jennifer opened it with a key around her neck. It was a little supply room, stuffed floor to ceiling with shelves and cubbies full of various items. Jennifer grabbed a big plastic zip-top bag and handed it to Nadie.
“There’s a hygiene kit for you. That should have all of the basics. Comb, toothbrush, deodorant, all the necessities. We’ll just grab you a few other things while you’re here. You’ve got a backpack? That’s good. Put your kit in there.” Nadie didn’t have time to put the hygiene kit into her backpack before Jennifer plopped another bag into her hands. It contained an assortment of tampons, pads, condoms, a pregnancy test, and other items Nadie couldn’t identify without reading the packages. Which she wasn’t going to do just then. She shoved both bags into her backpack, her face burning with embarrassment. Holly was giggling at her. Jennifer had pulled out another zip-top bag, this one empty, and was swiftly adding granola bars, fruit bars, and other snack foods with long shelf-life to it. “Do you have any allergies? Diabetes?”
“No.” Nadie’s mouth was watering at the sight of the food. When Jennifer handed it to her, she didn’t put it straight in her backpack, but took out one of the granola bars and tore open the wrapper.
Jennifer’s eyebrows went up. “No breakfast?”
Nadie shook her head. “No.”
Holly slapped a hand over her forehead. “Man, I’m sorry! You missed CFS breakfast because you weren’t checked in yet and the mission breakfast because you were in your interview. Here we are, drinking our grande coffees in front of you, not offering you anything. You want some?” She held out her coffee cup toward Nadie. Nadie hesitated. She wouldn’t normally say yes, but supper seemed like it had been a long, long time ago, and she could use the caffeine to steady her nerves. “Here,” Holly wiped the mouth of the coffee cup with her shirt. “Go ahead.”
Nadie accepted the cup and took a long drink of the hot coffee. It was fresh. Holly had loaded it up with sugar and cream, but it was still good. She handed it back to Holly, nodding.
“That’s good. Thank you.”
She continued to eat her granola bar, slower now that the edge of her hunger was dulled.
“What else do you need?” Jennifer asked, looking at the shelves. “We have postcards and stamps if you need to write anybody. Bus tickets, water bottles,” she pulled a water bottle off the shelf and handed it to Nadie without waiting for an answer. “Bibles, laundry soap…”
“Bus tickets,” Nadie said, and received a ten-pack of tickets.
“Get the laundry soap,” Holly advised. “Works a lot better than shampoo if you have to wash your clothes in the sink. CFS isn’t much help with washing machines. Can I get one of those too?”
Jennifer supplied each of them with a tiny bottle of laundry detergent. “Anything else?”
Nadie looked at Holly to see if there was anything important she was missing, then shook her head.
“No. That’s really good. Ay-hay.”
Jennifer smiled and nodded. She stepped out of the supply room and locked the door again. Her eyes lingered on Mitchell for a moment, then she looked at Nadie again. “So you’ve got some emergency supplies. You’ve got a place to sleep. You’re with CFS, so they’ll be helping with school registration and all that?”
Nadie looked at Holly and nodded. “Yeah. That’s what they said.”
“You’ll probably find you need some kind of job as well. When you’re ready to do that, I can direct you to the job bank and someone can show you how to search for something that meets your skill set. How about clothes?”
“I, uh… I have one change…”
“You’re going to need more than that. Especially for school and work. Let’s go back to my office.”
The halls were clear now, only the office workers and volunteers getting everything squared away. No more homeless people blocking the way. Jennifer sat down at her desk. Opening a desk drawer, she poked through several boxes and pulled out a business card. She handed it across the table to Nadie.
“That is our clothing storefront. Don’t worry about money, you just explain to them that we were helping you out here and referred you.” Jennifer put her name and a sloppy initial on the back of the card. “They will help you pull together what you need. Don’t let them forget about underwear and socks. They’re not out front, so sometimes they forget. It’s a thrift store; used clothing, but the underwear and socks in the back, they’re new, still in their packages. So you don’t need to worry…”
Holly leaned over Nadie’s shoulder to look at the card. “Yeah, I know where that is. I can show you how to get there.”
Nadie nodded and slid it into her pants pocket. “Okay. Thanks.”
For the first time since she had met Holly, Nadie was starting to relax and feel more at ease. She had a place to sleep and eat and all of the other necessities she would need. It would be even better than home, where food had always been a question mark and there was no proper plumbing or electricity. She had her own room she wouldn’t have to share with anyone, and her own bathroom too.
She was on her own, and she was going to survive.
Jennifer gave Nadie a reassuring smile. “I know how difficult this must be for you. I hope we helped a little.”
“Yeah, you did. Thanks.”
Holly gave Nadie a little nudge on the shoulder. “Time to go, girl. They got other work to do here.”
Nadie followed Holly and Mitchell back out of the building.
“Sorry again about the food,” Holly apologized. “You need anything else? I’ll buy you a muffin.”
“No, I’m okay now.”
Holly met Nadie’s eyes and held her gaze. “I’ll buy you a muffin,” she repeated. “And coffee.”
Nadie wavered. “Well…” her stomach growled. “Maybe…”
“If you’re hungry, you say yes,” Holly said sternly. “Don’t be wishy-washy with me.”
Nadie nodded hesitantly. “Yes, then…”
“Right. Let’s go get you some breakfast.”
Much of the day was spent going from one place to another to get everything Holly decided Nadie would need. Nadie had never had so many new clothes. Holly gave her a few of her own cosmetics and told her to ask if she needed anything else. Nadie was still trying to get used to the idea she had her own room, all to herself. No more need to share it if Grandfather invited more people to stay with them. No need to run to the outhouse or to empty the camp toilet from the bathroom. She could have a hot shower whenever she wanted one. Twice a day, if she felt like it.
She was exhausted by afternoon and wanted to go back to her own bed for a nap. Holly shook her head.
“They expect us to be at school during the day. You don’t want to remind them you’re not. Better if they forget to register you altogether. I’m supposed to be at school too, and Mitchell…”
“I’m not with CFS anymore,” Mitchell growled.
“Exactly. They don’t like us hanging out with bad influences.” Holly grinned so Mitchell would not take offense.
Mitchell rolled her eyes. Nadie rubbed her forehead and palmed her eyeballs, trying to soothe the aches away.
“I really need to get some rest.”
“Not until tonight. Here.” Holly dug into her pockets and, after a few minutes of sorting the contents out, she handed Nadie a few pills. “These will keep you awake. Give you a second wind.”
Nadie looked at them uncertainly. “What are they?”
“Just caffeine. Like in your coffee. It will give you a bit of a push, sweep away the cobwebs. Give them a try.”
Nadie gave in, washing a couple pills down with water from her mission water bottle. “I hope they work. I’m wiped.”
“They will.”
And they did. Within half an hour, Nadie was no longer tired. She was feeling energetic and cheerful and ready to take on a whole new day. Holly laughed at Nadie bouncing around on her toes.
“I’ll introduce you to my crew,” she said. “That will keep you busy for a while.”
Nadie wasn’t sure when Holly slept. She had been awake all night, as far as Nadie could tell, and all day, and was not showing any signs of wear.
Mitchell apparently was not part of Holly’s ‘crew,’ and excused herself from any participation in the coming fun. “I gotta go make some money,” she told Holly. “It was good seeing you again.”
“Yeah, you too,” Holly agreed. “I’ll pay you for this job in a day or two when I get mine, all right?”
Mitchell nodded. “Good. Don’t forget, I know where you live.”
Holly chuckled. “Yeah, you do.” She watched Mitchell’s departure for a minute and then turned back to Nadie. “Okay, babe. You up for some fun?”
Nadie nodded. It had been a long time since she had done anything just for fun. Or since she had hung out with friends. She and Mouse were still friends and had kept up with each other. But all of Nadie’s other friends from the reservation had dropped out of school and gone on to drink, have babies, or leave the reservation. She hadn’t hung out with girlfriends for a long time.
Nadie looked around the dingy apartment. It turned out Holly’s crew weren’t all girls like Nadie had expected. She saw the tall blond boy, Best, who looked up from his conversation with an acne-covered Indigenous boy with barely any teeth and gave her a little wave. There were a couple of other boys, and some girls, apparently all Indigenous. Nadie’s eyes lingered on one short, lithe girl who looked particularly Asian. She could have been Indigenous, but could also have passed for Polynesian or Chinese.
Holly rattled off everybody’s names, but Nadie wasn’t quick enough to catch them all.
“Is she joining up?” one of the girls asked, nodding to Nadie.
“CFS has given her a room,” Holly said. “We’ll see if she decides to stick around.”
“It’s pretty sweet,” the girl told Nadie. “Having your own room and being independent and all.”
“Is everyone here at the hotel?” Nadie asked, looking them over.
“No, not everyone… Everyone was there sometime, but not necessarily anymore.”
Nadie frowned and nodded. She still got the feeling there was a lot going on she wasn’t aware of. She kept trying to pick up all of the undercurrents. But these were kids who wouldn’t trust easily. Why would they explain everything to a stranger they had only known a few minutes? It made sense they would be cautious around her. If they were all rule-breakers like Holly, there was a lot to keep secret.
“Well,” said Best, “assuming she’s not a nark, can we get some booze flowing here?”
