The Curse of 1977 (Book 2)

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.

on the shoulder and said, "Why

"You think we should get

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

"Who are

"Umm...Florence Gates and her three kids. She signed out about eight this morning, and she knows good and well that those doors

her saying that her mother may have an extra room for

"Okay, but then there's Lynnette Glover. She signed

such a rush to get out of here that

"Hmm, that poor little thing, she doesn't need a shelter, she

"She sure looked like she did." Meredith added before going out

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

lives were so disheveled that being inside an overcrowded shelter was to be their

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.

"There, there now." Audra soothed

hers that knocked her

the girl back over to the bed where her mother was seated, Audra examined the child's body from

you hurt yourself, honey?"

banged my knee."

those fools to stop all that runnin'

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

Snickering right back, the mother replied, "Shoot, I thought he really was dead until I saw him on 'Roots' some months

"It's just not the same show without him." Audra protested. "It's too bad we only have four, six and ten

like that. They

stated, "My name is Audra Watson. When I'm not here, I volunteer down at

and this my youngest, Andinika.