Alex was still sort of pissed at Nicky who had refused to help. Yeah, she was paying Alex pretty good money to do her bidding, but at some point, Nicky would have to get involved and take responsibility. There is no way they could pull off conning her mom if Nicky didn't understand what good deed "she" was doing. At least Alex knew the deal now – don't expect Nicky's help until it was absolutely the last minute. Funny thing is, Alex had started because of the paycheck and now she was becoming vested because of the purpose. Serendipity.
She looked at the list of homeless shelters she had printed from online. Alex decided to focus on the two that were fairly close to where she lived, the 32nd and 65th street shelters. She stepped into a bank and cashed out some of money into lower denomination bills. She saved the withdrawal slip, noting for what the withdrawal was for and slipped it into her wallet. Nicky had promised to pay expenses, so Alex was going to hold her to that. Stopping at the store, she bought a slew of granola bars which she dumped into a deep pocket of her overcoat. The cash was tucked into her jeans pocket where she could withdraw only a bill at a time.
As she walked towards the first shelter, she watched all around her, her eyes seeing things, people rather than had been invisible to her before. The street people had never really caught her attention. Previously she had just ignored the panhandlers, stepped over the drunks laying on the sidewalk, and took a wide berth around the toothless crazies spouting their preachings. Now she did not walk past these people. She stopped at each one and offered them a granola bar and a five-dollar bill. While some spat at her and threw the food in her face, most were extremely gracious.
The front doors to the shelter were locked, but a sign denoted that deliveries should be made at the side entrance. Alex followed the arrow around the building to industrial double doors. She tugged on one of the doors and found that it was open. As she let herself in, she heard a voice come from a distant room. "We aren't open. You know that. Come back at five for dinner."
Alex walked in the direction of the voice and found a woman with deep red hair sitting at an office desk. Alex knocked. "Excuse me."
"I said get out!" The woman roared as she spun around in her rickety wooden office chair. When her eyes landed on Alex, they softened. "Oh. I'm sorry. I thought you were one of my customers trying to get an early meal." Her voice had a strong Russian accent. She looked Alex up and down. "I trust by your clothing that you aren't one of my customers. What do you want?" Her voice was still sharp.
"Ummm," Alex stuttered. "My name is Alex Vause. I wanted to know a little more about your operations here and couldn't find out much online, so I just came down."
The woman stared at Alex a few moments then said, "I'm Galina, but you can call me Red. They say I'm the cook here, but I'm more of the operations manager. What questions do you have?"
The two talked for a while with Red eventually warming up to Alex's presence as well as her questions. "Do you know what we need more of right now Alex? Volunteers. I never seem to have enough of them." Alex nodded. "Well Alex, as nice as it has been talking to you, I must get to work now. Soon I will have about a hundred and fifty hungry mouths to feed and the food doesn't cook itself."
Alex nodded. "Red… would you like some … help? I can stay."
Red huffed. "I thought you'd never ask."
Piper barely made it back to the shelter before curfew. While the breathing treatments had helped her cough subside some, she still felt like shit. Despite the rational part of her brain telling her she needed fuel for her body to heal, she didn't feel like eating. She simply curled up in bed and drifted off to sleep.
She only slept for about an hour before she woke up with sweats and chills. She pulled her blanket tightly around her to try to keep her body heat in and willed herself to go back to sleep. Then she remembered she hadn't taken her antibiotics. Recalling the insistence of the nurse that she take the pills exactly as prescribed, she dug them out of her bag.
After a few attempts at removing the childproof cap, she shook out a capsule and dry swallowed it. She recapped the container and went to place it back into her bag when a someone grabbed her wrist with a firm grip. "Whatcha got there bitch?"
"N-n-nothing." Piper felt the sharp tip of some sort of a blade pressing against her side through her layers of clothing. "They're antibiotics to help me get better," Piper coughed. "You can't get high off of them. I swear." Her voice betrayed her terror.
The woman laughed menacingly. "We'll see about that bitch." After a short struggle, she wrenched the bottle of drugs from Piper's grasp and disappeared into the dark dorm.
A despondent Piper was so weak from the coughing, the trip to the clinic, and the meds that she didn't chase after the woman. Besides, she would probably only come on the short end of battling with a woman with a knife. She just fell back onto her cot, pulled her covers around her and cried herself to sleep.
Alex dragged herself into her home, exhausted from her evening of work at Red's shelter. She fell onto her bed without even kicking off her shoes. Red wasn't joking when she said how much work it took to just feed the people who showed up as well as maintain the fifty beds they kept open every night. The organizational feat was amazing.
She also got an idea of how much money was required for the shelter to keep its doors open. The city only provided a measly portion of the budget. For the rest, Red depended on donations from community members and companies. When Alex asked her about the outreach organizations she had begun to research, Red had openly scoffed.
"Those establishments aren't worth the paper their stationery is printed on. People donate their money because of the name recognition; but very little of the cash actually trickles down to the needy as most is consumed by organizational operating costs and administrative salaries." Red sounded thoroughly disgusted.
Alex's heart sank as Red's words sank in. The longer she thought about it, the more she was convinced she had found Nicky's cause. Now she just had to figure out how to make that happen where a real difference could be made. She couldn't just have Nicky throw cash at a problem because obviously that wouldn't make an impact. And frankly why have a cause unless you initiate change?
"Girl, I said girl. You gotta get up. Morning curfew is in ten minutes." The woman who had told Piper about the clinic the day before was shaking her cot. "The dorm mother doesn't abide by any lateness in her shelter."
Piper rolled over as a coughing fit shook her body.
"I thought I told you to get your white ass to the clinic."
Piper's voice was ragged and gravelly. "I did."
"Well…"
"I got an injection and a breathing treatment. But someone stole my antibiotics last night?"
"Who? What'd they look like?"
"Dunno, it was dark. Don't worry about me. I feel better today." A deep breath made Piper start coughing again.
"Sure you do little missy. Don't believe that for a minute. I'll see if I can find your pills. Meanwhile get up and get out of here. Pronto. I'll tell the dorm mother you are running a few minutes late. You don't cause no trouble and yous sick. She'll cut you some slack." The woman got up to leave and turned back to Piper. "My name is Taystee. I hang around the encampment that's about two blocks north of here, 63rd street. You come find me around noon."
"Thanks Taystee. I'm Piper."
Piper slowly pulled herself out of bed, got dressed for the day, and gathered her belongings. She eyed the shelter blanket on her bed. Her mind flashed to the brutal winds outside and then decided to roll the blanket as small as possible and stuff it into her bag. The extra warmth in the wild Chicago wind would be a blessing.
As she headed out the door, the dorm mother stopped her. Her eyes were full of pity, but her voice was strong. "I'm sorry Piper." She reached for Piper's bag and pulled out the blanket. "I know you are sick, but if we let everyone take the blankets, we won't have any left. We don't exactly have funds to replace them. You'll have to leave this here. This is your first infraction, but if you break the rules again, I'm afraid you'll have to find another place to sleep."
Piper simply nodded as she saw the woman confiscate her hopes of a spare layer against the cold, turned and tucked her chin into her layers of clothes and trudged off.
Having her mind made up about Nicky's good deed after volunteering in Red's shelter, Alex still wanted to make sure she had a good picture of how another Chicago shelter was run. She was fairly confident after that she would have collected enough information to start working on solutions.
Red had told her that, amazingly enough, one need that people did not donate enough of was socks. Socks were vital to not only keep the clients' feet warm but also dry, especially in the winter. Nothing felt nicer than a fresh pair of socks. So Alex went by a department store and purchased a slew of thick socks. Into each pair, she stuffed two granola bars and a $5 bill. All of that went into a large bag then she set off to the 65th street shelter which was a little further from her home.
As Alex got close to the shelter, the density of street people increased. Many people were hanging out because that's where they slept at night while others ate regular meals there. Alex didn't just hand out pairs of socks, she squatted or sat on the ground and had a conversation with the people who would actually talk to her. Many flat out ignored her while others craved the attention. But one thing was the same. When Alex gave them the socks with food and money, their eyes lit up like Christmas.
Alex was having difficulty finding the delivery entrance to this place and paused to take a look around her surroundings. She scanned her surroundings and the people milling about. A stooped figure caught her attention, a familiar woman shuffling towards the neighborhood. "Piper!" Alex immediately called out and began trotting towards her acquaintance. The woman glanced behind her and sped up her pace, turning the corner. By the time Alex had reached the corner, the woman was gone.
She could have sworn it had been Piper. But why would have Piper run from her? Alex's concerns for Piper were increasing because she had not seen the woman in almost a week. After running into her twice in two days, not seeing her any at all bothered her. Now, Alex's frustrations with not being able to find the shelter entrance were compounded by Piper's apparent avoidance, if that indeed was Piper. She had to determine why she felt so absolutely drawn to this homeless woman before it drove her insane.
Eventually, Alex was able to gain entrance to the building. The older gentleman, Justin, running this building was as gruff as Red but soon lightened up when he heard Alex's probing questions. Because of her conversation with Red and subsequent research, she had a better list of questions today.
Her inquiries were specific as to what donations were needed at the shelter, what services could be used, and what outside organizations were the most and least helpful. Justin spoke not only specifically about his shelter but about Chicago's street people in general. His responses were helpful in helping Alex clarify the problems as well as possible solutions.
After talking for quite some time, Alex noticed the time. "I've kept you from you job long enough. How about I stay and help with your afternoon and evening meals?" A shocked Justin was certainly welcome of the extra set of hands for the soup kitchen.
Piper spent most of her morning curled up in an alley next to a dumpster. She had missed breakfast because she woke up late and had very little energy on top of being sick. Frankly, she didn't feel like moving much at all, and the large trash bin blocked the wind. Sleeping off and on, Piper found herself feeling worse as the morning continued. Without a watch to judge the time, she estimated it was fairly close to noon time, so she dragged herself to her feet and set off to find the homeless camp.
She began looking around for Taystee as soon as she got to the camp. The trash barrels were still burning like eternal flames with people warming themselves over them. Piper normally avoided looking at people so as to maintain her own privacy as well as the other people. Yet now she found herself searching for someone who might let her warm herself by his fire while she looked for her friend.
"Yo Piper," a familiar voice called from her right. "Get over here." Piper glanced over and was relieved to see Taystee standing with a small group of people. She shuffled over and held her hands over the fire, embracing the warmth now coursing through her thoroughly chilled body.
Taystee introduced the people around the fire then reached down and grabbed one young girl by the scruff of her gray hooded sweatshirt. "And this…," she said yanking the girl to her feet, "is Trish."
Piper eyed the young girl with dirty blonde hair braided in corn rows. She also had a series of tattoos running down her throat. Taystee shoved Trish towards Piper a bit. "And Trish has something she would like to say to you, right Trish?" Taystee let go of Trish's hoodie and crossed her arms.
Trish ducked her head. "Yeah, ummm, I'm sorry," she said in a low voice. She looked at Taystee who was still frowning and spoke louder. "It was me who took your stash, I mean your medicine." She looked back at the ground. Taystee whacked her on the back of the head. "Ow Taystee." Taystee opened her eyes wide and nodded towards Piper. "Here." Trish held her closed hand out to Piper then dropped a prescription bottle into Piper's palm. "I'm sorry. I really am."
Piper looked at the pill bottle, opened it, and counted the pills.
"I didn't take any. I swear." Trish was jittery as she bounced from foot to foot. "When I realized they were antibiotics like you said, I figured I'd just sell them to someone who was sick. Then Taystee here caught wind of my act."
Piper looked at the larger woman. "Thanks Taystee. I appreciate it." She shook a pill out and dry swallowed it. Trish offered her a half bottle of water which Piper accepted to wash the pill down. Piper nodded to Trish in a manner of acceptance of her apology.
Piper spent the rest of the afternoon with Taystee and her friends. They split some sandwiches someone had gotten from the shelter. Being around the other people lifted Piper's spirits. She actually… felt part of a family. It was a somewhat dysfunctional family, but belonging to something is better than belonging to nothing.
As soon as the lunch rush was over, the kitchen volunteers began preparations for the evening meal. While lunch was normally light, most often sandwiches and soup, they tried to make dinner a heavier meal. Something to stick to the ribs to not only warm up their customers but to give them something to keep fueling their body through the night. Particularly because not all of the customers dining at the soup kitchen were residents, heartier meals were needed. They were out in the cold at night and needed the calories.
Tonight's meal was typical: spaghetti and mashed potatoes. There was always fresh fruit to go along with any meal in an attempt to slip more nutrition in the customer's bodies. While this was often served, it was an inexpensive choice to feed the hungry mouths. Sometimes they were fortunate to have real potatoes but more often than not, they dealt with instant. However, nobody dared to complain for the hot food warming their bellies.
Alex was definitely not used to being on her feet so much, but she certainly did not gripe. Her aches and pains were nothing compared the hardships these people faced. The line was running low on fruit, so she went to the kitchen to quickly cut up more. Soon she returned with a pan of apples to dump in the fruit bin.
As she looked up, her eyes connected with a pair of very familiar blue eyes. Piper looked agitated and Alex dared not say a word. She let the grungy blonde get her food and watched as she sat in a vacant corner trying to stifle deep coughs as she picked through the food on her plate. When there was a break in the serving line, Alex made her way over to try to talk to Piper. But Piper wasn't having any of it. She took one look at Alex approaching, cleaned up her area and ran to the dorms.
