Any day off was something to look forward to for employees of WWE. While it was true that the NXT schedule was lighter than that of the main roster, Sonya and Mandy were still always grateful for rest days when they came around.
This particular off day was one they had been excited about even more than usual. Thanks to Zelina acting as an intermediary, Sonya and Mandy had been introduced to Ember Moon via a telephone conversation. Ember was a current Smackdown star, and the founder of a new charity for homeless veterans. Today, they would be visiting the charity themselves, and would be spending a few hours helping out. Having only recently opened the charity, largely using her own money to get it going, Ember had been delighted to hear from them, and incredibly appreciative of their offer of help.
Personally, Sonya couldn't have been happier to get involved. If a few hours of her time could make a difference to people who had literally put their lives on the line for their country, she considered it the absolute least she could do. Pleasingly, Mandy had seen it exactly the same way.
"Orlando Veterans Retreat, there it is," Mandy said, pointing out of the windshield at a single storey building up ahead on the right.
"Good eyes," Sonya said. The small sign fixed to the side of the building was the only way to identify it. She could easily have driven by and missed it if Mandy hadn't been there.
Hastily slowing the car, Sonya pulled into the small lot in front of the grey concrete building. There was nothing remarkable about it at all, in fact it looked dreary. But Ember had needed somewhere to base the charity without having to spend a fortune on it.
There were five parking spaces in the lot, two of them already occupied. One of the cars was an almost brand new Honda, which Sonya instinctively knew belonged to Ember.
After Ember and Mandy had agreed the date when they were going to volunteer, Ember had said that since it was an off day for her too, she would make sure to be there in person to meet them and show them around.
Parking the car, Sonya killed the engine and got out. She had dressed simply, in a pair of black pants, a dark blue t-shirt and a black leather jacket. Mandy had gone for jeans, with a grey t-shirt. Mindful that they were there to work with homeless people, they certainly hadn't wanted to be over-dressed.
"I feel really good, Son," Mandy said as they walked towards the entrance. "Like, we might make a difference to people by being here."
"I've been thinking the same thing," Sonya said. "Honestly, I think it's appalling that people who serve get abandoned after they leave the military. What do you think about making a donation? We could speak to Ember about it."
Reaching the entrance door, Mandy stopped before opening it and looked at Sonya. "I agree with the idea, but we don't have a lot of money after spending so much on the furniture and everything for the apartment."
"True. But we could spare a couple hundred dollars or something. I'm sure every little helps, especially now, while Ember's trying to get up and running. It must be costing a serious amount."
Mandy nodded. "Alright, yeah, we'll tell her we want to give a couple hundred dollars. If they have a website online yet, we could tweet it out and ask fans to consider donating. We don't have massive reach, but it's a hell of a lot better than nothing."
"You're totally right," Sonya said. "That's something else we can ask Ember about. Come on, let's go in."
Mandy opened the door, and Sonya followed her inside. Entering into a relatively small dining area, she stopped for a moment and looked around. She counted eight tables. Currently, there was only one homeless person in the room, a man with a mess of long hair and a beard, who was sitting at a table at the far end of the room. He was nursing a cup of tea or coffee and looking down at the table top. Sonya felt instinctively sorry for him.
On the plus side, while not being luxurious by any means, the plastic dining tables and chairs looked new, and the walls had obviously been recently repainted in a neutral magnolia colour. There were some cheap paintings of picturesque landscape scenes for decoration. Sonya also noticed how nice and warm it was in the room, an important thing for people who came in off the streets, she was sure.
From somewhere in the building, there were sounds of some kind of building or renovation work going on. Someone was hammering something, while someone else could be heard sawing timber. Sonya guessed that there were further rooms in the back of the building, some of them still being gotten into a fit state for use. It showed just how new this venture was.
Opposite the entrance door, there was a serving hatch for food and drinks to be passed through from the kitchen. Ember Moon appeared at the hatch, and smiled when she saw who had walked in. "Mandy! Sonya! Thanks for coming. I'll come around now."
Ember disappeared from sight again. A moment later, she walked through a door in the back corner of the dining room, and Mandy and Sonya approached her. Greetings were exchanged, then Ember said, "I guess I should start by showing you around. As you can see, this is the dining area. We serve hot drinks, and meals twice a day."
"That's awesome," Sonya said. "I'm surprised it's so quiet, though. Only one person in?"
"We're so new, we only have three people registered with us so far," Ember explained. "As you know, we're here for veterans. They have to register with us with their military details and stuff before we accept them."
"Only three?" Mandy asked, surprised.
"Three registered, and a couple who have applied. Hopefully they'll be confirmed in the next day or so. It'll pick up once word gets around," Ember said confidently. "To be frank with you, we're not fully operational yet anyway. As I'm sure you can hear, I have workmen in. They're getting what are going to be the two dorms refurbished."
"Let's go have a look around," Sonya suggested.
"Okay," Ember said. "So, this is the dining room, obviously." She pointed to the opposite end of the room to where she had entered. There were two doors next to each other down there. "There are the bathrooms."
"Okay," Mandy said.
"Follow me," Ember said, heading back in the direction she had come from.
Sonya followed behind Ember and Mandy. Upon leaving the dining room, there was a door to her immediate right which clearly opened into the kitchen. Ember pushed the door open and walked in. Following, Sonya saw a male volunteer at work mopping the floor.
"I managed to get all of the appliances donated by local businesses, which was really amazing," Ember informed them. "All I had to do in return was list out each company and what they donated on our website."
"Oh, you have a website," Sonya said. "We were going to ask about that. Mandy and I want to tweet it out and encourage fans to donate. I assume people can donate online?"
"Yep," Ember smiled. "We got that functionality sorted out just a couple of days ago. There's so much that goes in to starting something like this, but it's worth the hard work for such a good cause."
"It looks like you're doing a fantastic job," Mandy said, smiling. "We couldn't be happier to come and help out, and we want to make a donation as well. We've only just moved into a new place, so we don't have a great deal of money right now, but we're going to donate two hundred bucks."
"You are?" Ember asked, delighted. "That will be a huge help. Thank you so much."
"You're welcome," Mandy said.
"You mentioned dorms," Sonya said to Ember. "You're going to be offering your clients, if that's the right word, a place to sleep?"
"Yes, that's right," Ember said. "We're a few weeks from being ready with that side of it, but that is the end goal. We're going to have room for eight men and four women when both dorms are finished. At the moment, we don't have the money for furnishings for the dorms, but I'm hoping enough will come in via donations soon so that I can get that sorted. I'll also need more volunteers to staff the place properly."
As Ember ushered them out of the kitchen and showed them further along the hallway to where the two dorms were going to be, Mandy continued the questioning. "So, at the moment you only serve food and drinks. I don't meant to say only like that's not something great, because it really is."
"I know what you meant," Ember said with a smile. "And yeah, right now we offer lunch and dinner. Once we're fully operational we'll offer breakfast as well. I'd like to get some kind of process in place where we help our guests find their way into work so that they can turn their situation around, as well as offering help with any mental health issues they may have."
"I'm sure that can be a big issue with vets," Sonya said. She couldn't imagine what kinds of awful things people would witness on active duty.
"Yes, it is," Ember said, a hint of sadness in her voice.
Sonya and Mandy were shown around the rooms that would become the dorms once the workmen were done with them. Each dorm would have a small bathroom and shower for the occupants to use. Sonya felt sure that it would be like heaven on earth to someone who had been sleeping rough.
"This is a great little place you've got here," Mandy said when the tour was over. "I'm sure I speak for Sonya as well when I say I couldn't be happier to be involved, and I don't see today being the only time I'll come to help out."
"Absolutely, I agree," Sonya said. "Obviously with our schedules we can't come often, but I am happy to put a half day in whenever we can."
"It's much appreciated," Ember said humbly.
On the way back towards the kitchen and dining room, Mandy clapped her hands together enthusiastically. "Alright, what can we do to help today?"
"Two choices," Ember said. "My job for the day was going to be painting the bathrooms, but you guys can do that if you want? Either that or help to serve lunch. If you do that, you could maybe get to meet the three people we've currently taken on."
"There was only one guy in," Sonya reminded her.
"The others will be here any moment, in time for lunch," Ember promised, leaving no room for doubt.
Sure enough, as they walked back into the kitchen and Sonya looked through the serving hatch, she saw that two other homeless people, a man and a woman, had arrived and sat down at the table with the guy who had already been there. The man had a crew cut and was very well built. The dark haired woman didn't look remarkable in any way, but Sonya felt sure she had a story to tell nonetheless.
"Those are the three you have registered with you right now then," Sonya said quietly, not wanting to be overheard. "Who are they?"
Standing next to her, Ember also opted for a hushed tone. "The guy with the long hair is Jim Duggan. He served for twenty two years. The other man is AJ Styles, a former marine. And lastly there's Lisa Moretti. She was Special Forces, and had the code name Ivory, so she told me. That's one badass woman right there, even though she might not look it."
"Special Forces? Shit," Mandy breathed in admiration. "I think I'd like to help with the meal, then have a chat to them, if that's okay?"
Ember nodded, then gestured to the male volunteer, who was now making hot drinks for the two new arrivals. "Jordan here will do the cooking. You guys can do the serving and the washing up."
"Sonya's speciality," Mandy said with a look in her eyes that only Sonya could have understood.
"Oh really?" Ember asked, smiling humourously, even if she didn't really understand the remark.
"Mandy likes to watch me do dishes," Sonya said, deciding that it was fair game to embarrass Mandy back, since she had fired the first shot.
"Well, whatever floats your boat," Ember said, raising an eyebrow. "So long as dishes get washed, you can stop by any time you want."
"Noted," Mandy said, her cheeks flushing nicely, as far as Sonya was concerned.
Happy with her handiwork, Sonya decided it was time to get down to business. "Okay, Ember, show us how we get started."
A/N: Thank you to everyone who left a review last time.
In the next chapter, we will see Sonya and Mandy have a chat with one of the homeless vets. Which one would you like to learn more about?