Chapter Twenty Nine
"Ugh!" Jenny said when their ride finally showed up.
It was an old battered white van that had been previously used by another church since they would see where lettering had been taken off the fronts and sides. They could also see the faint outline of Precious Moments Angels by the lettering. It was being driven by a bulky Hispanic man and a shorter Hispanic woman sat in the passenger seat. The man stopped the van and got out. He was wearing a wife beater t-shirt and blue jeans and his big bulky muscles were a contrast to his thin little legs. He had shaved his head and had a small goatee on his round face. The woman had glasses with pink frames, long brown hair and one tooth missing. She leaned out of the passenger side window while the man moved around to her side.
"Hello, are you here for Brother Anthony?" the man said with a thick Spanish accent.
Everyone nodded.
"I'm Alex, this is my girlfriend, Stephanie," he said. "Climb in."
He slid open the side door and the Doctor groaned.
"Why do I have a feeling this will be another teeth rattling ride?" he said.
Jenny and Rose got in first and went to the back of the four seat van. The Doctor followed and they giggled when he had to nearly bend in half to walk to the back.
"Sucks being big and gangly, huh?" Jenny said as the Doctor flopped down in the seat in front of them.
"Not really, I can see over high fences, little one," he said, poking the top of Jenny's head.
Suri flopped down in the seat in front of him, stretched out on it and went to sleep. The Doctor rolled his eyes at that while Alex closed the door and walked back around to the driver's side. He got in, shut the door and drove away.
It took about thirty minutes driving down the interstate till they reached Britton Road. They got off the interstate and went down to the highway. Alex turned right and went about a half mile to a housing development. Alex drove down one block and turned into a cement driveway that also had a Honda Civic, SUV and another van sitting in it. The house was brick, two story with a two car garage. It had a fenced in back yard and was nestled in between houses of different shapes and sizes, all of them looking brand new or close to it.
"He started a homeless shelter here?" Jenny said, looking at the house. "And the neighbors don't care? Seems a bit upscale to me."
"Maybe they're very tolerant neighbors," the Doctor said. "Oh blimey, here we go, back out the door."
Jenny and Rose giggled as he got up, hunched over, and made his way to the sliding door. Jenny and Rose followed him. Rose shook Suri when she got to him.
"Huh?" Suri said.
"We're at this shelter of yours, get up," she said before she went on.
They got out and walked past the van to a little concrete walkway that led up to a small porch in front of the door. There was a storm door in front of the actual door and there were two long windows on either side of it. Jenny looked at her friends when she pointed out that the bottom of one of the long windows had been busted out.
"This is a nice house in a nice neighborhood, I'm willing to bet Anthony didn't do this," she said to them.
Alex came up, opened both doors and told them to come inside. He and Stephanie followed and the Doctor, Rose and Jenny walked down a short hallway to a large living room. Right by the living room was the kitchen and a 300 pound man was cooking something while a black man sat at a wooden kitchen table. Both of them looked up when everyone entered the room.
"These are new people," Alex said to them. "This is Jessie," he said, pointing to the fat man "And this is Derek," he said, pointing to the black man.
"Welcome," Jessie said. "We're cooking supper and you're welcome to eat with us."
"Supper, it's nearly 11:30 at night," the Doctor said, glancing at a digital clock on the wall.
"Some of us eat late here," Derek said. "I work at Sonic and I get home late."
They heard a door slam and the Doctor, Rose and Jenny turned to see Suri shuffling into the house, his eyes barely open. Alex told the three of them to have a seat and they looked around at two recliner sofas, a long one and a short one. They sat down on the long one side by side while Suri shuffled into the room and flopped down on the short one. There were two closed doors, one by the dining room table and one at the end of the long sofa. Behind them was stairs that led up and another short hallway that went past it. Off to their right was a sliding glass door that led into the back yard and they could see a large trampoline in the center of the yard. While they sat there, the door beside the kitchen table opened and they could see a bedroom with several black people of differing ages sitting on a large bed. A man came out and smiled at them. He was tall and slightly muscular with a shaved head. Everyone on the bed looked in at them while the man walked over to them.
"I'm Brother Anthony," he said to them. "Welcome. What's your names?"
"I'm Rose, this is Jenny and John and that's Suri over there."
"Welcome Sister Rose, Sister Jenny, Brother John and Brother Suri," he said. "I'm the one who runs this shelter and you're more than welcome to stay here for as long as you like."
"While he was talking, a three year old boy with short curly black hair slipped off the bed and toddled out the door. A young woman wearing a black shirt and ankle length black skirt came out after him.
"Steel, no, come back inside," she said, taking the toddler's hand.
"This is my wife, Sister Anne and my son, Steel," Anthony said as Anne scooped her child up in her arms. "And…come out here, everyone!"
Several teenagers and preteens came out into the living room. All of the women were wearing long skirts or dresses as they assembled around Anthony.
"These are my children," Anthony said, pointing to each of them in turn, "This is Anthony Junior, Antonio, Adrian, Keisha, Ayesha and Myesha. Everyone this is Sister Rose, Sister Jenny, Brother John and Brother Suri."
Everyone said hello and everyone except Suri returned the greetings. Suri was snoring loudly, passed out on the sofa. Anthony called for everyone in the house to come into the living room and several more people came from the room at the end of the hallway and down the stairs.
"These are the other people living here," Anthony said. "This is Brother Terrance," he said, pointing to a young black man who was dressed in tight blue jeans and hot pink t-shirt.
"Hello," Terrance said in a high-pitched girly voice.
"This is Sister Nicole," Anthony said, pointing to a middle aged black woman with a haggard face.
Nicole waved shyly.
"This is Brother Eric," he said, pointing to a Hispanic man in his twenties who was standing by a Caucasian woman wearing blue scrubs and two small children. "And this is his wife, Sister Monica and their children, Alicia and Angel."
They all waved and the Doctor, Rose and Jenny said hello.
He pointed to a plump Hispanic woman with a young son.
"This is Brother Alex's wife, Sister Maria and their son, Tony," he said. "As you can see, we're a bit full right now and all the rooms are taken so you'll have to sleep on the sofa here and a couple of you might be able to sleep on the floor, either in here or the front room," he said, pointing back down the hallway to the front door and the room that was just off to the side of it.
Jenny and Rose stared at him in shock.
"You're bringing in people and you don't have room for them," Rose said.
"Well, my church is building a proper homeless shelter but for the moment we're taking in anyone who needs a place to stay. The sofas do recline out so you can stretch out on them. But here we only have a few rules. We're not like other shelters where you have to get out in the morning. You can stay here all day if you want and sleep for as long as you like. The kitchen has food that you can cook and you are free to just relax and recover from being out on the streets. The rules I do have are that you must attend church both on Sunday and Wednesday with me and my family. There will be no swearing and no secular music or TV or anything that doesn't glorify God will be allowed in this house. I am in charge and when I'm not here, Sister Anne will be in charge and you must follow our rules. We usually have a bible study each night and in fact, we're going to have one now in a few minutes.
"Um, it's nearly midnight," Jenny said.
"I know but some people have jobs here so we tend to do things late in the evening and I want everyone to attend the bible studies and group meetings when we have them. If you do need a ride, I drive bus 18 until 11 a.m. and then I drive bus 7 until 5:30. You are welcome to ride those buses for free. However, neither bus comes by here. You can catch bus 18 by walking down the road here, past the overpass to a side road that goes beside the interstate, walk up to the next overpass and there's a bench right beside the McDonalds on the turn off. Bus 7 doesn't near here at all but if you catch the last bus at 5:30, you can ride with me to the bus yard and I'll take you back here in my car. However, I would love for you to stay here for at least 30 days and not go anywhere since you need to rest from being in the outside world."
"Um…my friends and I want to go to the library tomorrow afternoon to see an international festival thing," Jenny said.
"That's not allowed, you have to attend church, Sister Jenny," Anthony said.
"Yeah, this starts at 1 p.m., so we can go to church and then go to it," Jenny said.
"No, you have to attend church service in the morning and in the evening so I don't allow anyone to go anywhere on Sunday unless it's absolutely essential," Anthony said.
Jenny and Rose looked at each other while Terrance snickered.
"Also, I don't allow fighting in here and no bringing in of any alcohol or drugs. And I won't allow you to come in here drunk or high," Anthony said.
"Well, there's strike one for Aladdin then," Jenny said, pointing to him. "He's drunk."
"Yes, I figured that which is why I want you to stay here and not go anywhere for 30 days so you can keep away from temptations like that."
"Yes, but none of us do that," the Doctor said. "We don't drink to the point of drunkeness and we don't do drugs."
"Yes, but you still need to rest and get deprogrammed from the outside world," Anthony said. "The outside world is full of temptations and in here you can get away from that and focus on helping yourself and finding God."
"So, when you say deprogram from drugs and alcohol," Rose said. "You mean send people like Suri to rehab to get clean?"
"No, we ask that they stay in here away from alcohol and drugs and dry out. We don't use rehab, we rely on the power of God in here."
"Um, that's nice but really, you should be sending these people to some sort of rehab," Rose said.
"No, it's not needed," Anthony said.
"God is powerful and if you ask God to come into your heart, he'll cleanse you of all iniquity," Anne said. "He has the power to set you free from Satan and his temptations."
"But I killed Satan," the Doctor muttered under his breath.
"What was that?" Anthony said while Rose and Jenny tried not to laugh.
"Nothing, just thinking to myself," the Doctor said.
"Anyway, we're going to have bible study in a few minutes and then you can rest for the night. But we have to be up by 6:30 in the morning to go to church so just be aware of that."
"So, why won't you let us sleep then, you schmuck?" Jenny muttered under his breath as Anthony and his family turned and went back into the bedroom.
When they shut the door, everyone dispersed except for Jessie, Derek and Terrance. The Doctor, Rose and Jenny sat on the sofa while Suri snored away.
"So, that's it for the international festival then," Jenny said softly to her friends.
The Doctor leaned over and Jenny and Rose leaned in close.
"I have a plan about that, I'll tell you later when we're alone," he whispered to them.
They nodded. The Doctor noticed that Rose and Jenny were looking past him and he looked over his shoulder. Terrance had come up to him and was standing over him, staring at him with a huge grin on his face.
"Yes?" the Doctor said.
He was taken aback when Terrance leaned down into his face and gazed at him.
"Ooo-eee, you are one sexy bitch, honey," he said to him. "Are you gay?"
"Um…no," the Doctor said.
"Shit, ah well, you're still sexy."
Rose and Jenny looked at one another when Terrance pinched his cheek and kissed the air.
"Mmm, what I wouldn't give to hump you," he said while Rose and Jenny stared at him in shock. "Oh well, can't have everything in the world. But maybe you'll change your mind, honey."
The three of them watched while Terrance skipped away back down the hallway to the back room.
"Okay, can you say flaming?" Jenny said.
"Don't mind him, he does that to everyone," Jessie said from the kitchen.
"By the way," Terrance said, skipping back into the room with his IPod in his hand. "What'd you say youre name was, cutie?"
"Who me?" the Doctor said, pointing to himself.
"Well, you're the only cutie in the bunch, honey," Terrance said, undressing him with his eyes.
"Um, I'm John."
"Janetta?"
"No, John," the Doctor said.
"I know but I give all the men here female names. I'll call you Janetta and that over there is Jessica and Daquesha and Alex is Alexa and Eric is Erica and Anthony Junior is Antonina and Adrian is Adrienne and Antonio is Antonia and him…what was his name?" he said, pointing to Suri.
"Suri," the Doctor said.
"Um, ew, stupid name, he's drunk anyway, I don't want him. But you, you're a cutie, Janetta. Hope to be seeing more of you."
He paused and looked at Rose for a moment and then leaned in.
"Hey, Bleach Blonde Bimbo, your roots are showing. Ta!"
The Doctor glared at him as he skipped out of the room. Rose was rendered speechless and Jenny groaned.
"Okay, now do you guys see why I'd rather sleep on the streets?" she said.