Chapter twenty-six
Bellflower House
3625 Yuma St. NW
Washington DC

Spencer

"This is perfect." Spencer said as he climbed out of Esther's back seat.

They were on a quiet backstreet in a pleasant neighborhood, in front of a large, old American Foursquare house. Susanna turned to him. "Why is that?"

Not only will you not have to worry about any major streets between here and campus you're about, um, a half-mile from my apartment. Maybe a ten minute walk at most. If you ever need anything I can just walk over."

Susanna's smile started growing. "Oh, that is perfect."

"According to the brochure it's within walking distance of American University, The University of the District of Colombia, The UDC community college and Howard School of Law, as well as the Metro red line." Garcia told them. "They have students at all four, or will."

Spencer walked over to where Susanna was standing, but rather than take his arm this time she patted it gently. "Thank you but I need to do this." She said before carefully navigating her way away from the car and up the short flight of stairs to the front porch.

Before they could knock the door opened and a woman stepped out. "Hello!" She said, brightly.

"Hey Cheryl!" Garcia said as they climbed the stairs. "I hope we're not too late."

"Oh no, not at all. None of the residents are back from evening classes yet. I'm Cheryl Lakewood the owner here. Just call me Cheryl." She was an older woman, maybe Strauss' age, with a mass of curly, red hair and a warm smile. "You must be Miss Holman, and you must be Dr. Reid. So nice to meet you both."

"Susanna, please." She replied with a smile as they stepped into a bright, clean entrance hall. "Thank you so much for doing this. I still don't understand how…"

"Oh, if you're legally blind you can get Medicare. They cover a certain amount toward assisted living, which this is, technically. We're just going to accept that payment."

"Usually a place this…um, nice charges quite a bit more than that." From here Spencer could see the living room and dining room, both bright and well furnished. "My mother is in a care facility and I know…" He knew how much he had to pay for Bennington over and above her disability.

"Oh we do, normally, but not in this case. Okay, if you stand with your back to the front door and turn right you'll find the front parlor. If you turn left at the back of the couch and head straight back you'll find a meeting room." While Susanna navigated Cheryl continued. "I'm what they used to call a 'Catholic mistake', by the time I came along my siblings were all in high school and college. My eldest sister ended up caught up in a cult, but before she started thinking about getting out our parents were killed in a car accident. I went off to live with my aunt and uncle and we lost touch. She ended up spending an extra three years in that cult because she thought she didn't have any place to go or anyone to help on the outside. When I heard about Susanna I just remembered my sister and realized what a brave thing she was doing and I didn't want her to have nowhere to go. So we'll just go with the assisted living payment until she gets her Bachelors, give her a chance at a good start."

"That is remarkably generous." Susanna said as she returned to them. "I can't thank you enough."

"Oh, I think we owe you. How are those boys, by the way?"

"Home," Garcia replied. "And our godson, at least, is doing really well all things considered."

"Oh good, good. Okay, if you stand at the front door and turn left you find the dining room. Take a right at the table and you come to the kitchen. The breakfast nook is past the counter." In the kitchen a silver-haired, older woman was cooking. "This is Mrs. Knox, she's the live-in housekeeper; we have someone sighted on-site every night. She also teaches cooking. Mrs. Knox, this is Susanna, she's going to be taking the fourth bedroom, and these are her friends Penelope and Dr. Reid, they're helping her move-in."

"Pleasure to meet you all," Mrs. Knox replied.

"Cooking?" Susanna asked. "I can learn to cook?"

"I don't see why not." Cheryl replied.

Susanna looked astonished, her smile growing. "I can learn to cook." She turned to Spencer. "I'm going to learn how to cook, and I am going to cook you dinner."

"Really?" It wasn't just that he was thrilled by her response, it was kind of also someone cooking him dinner. No one had cooked just for him since his Mom, and that was a while ago. There was something about being cooked for that was….

"Yes." She beamed at him, already proud.

"Now the kitchen is available 24/7, we have the house rules on it in the binder you'll receive. You'll have your own shelf in the pantry to store what you want to bring home. We ask that residents don't keep too much food in their rooms; it draws bugs, and no hotplates, open flames, microwaves, refrigerators, that sort of thing, just come down here and help yourself. We do a continental breakfast in the morning and dinner at night, there's a menu, just tell Mrs. Knox if you're going to be in. You're on your own for lunch so we recommend our residents look into the meal plans at the University they're attending. We also have a snack bar downstairs in the study center, coffee maker, soda, microwave for popcorn, that sort of thing."

"Study center?" Spencer asked.

"Yes, this way. Susanna, if you stand at the front door and walk straight ahead the stairs going up are on the left, the ones going down are on the right. In each case there are seven steps, then a turn and then seven more." She led them downstairs to another living area, this one having the battered, worn, lived in look of a dorm lounge. "This is the study center; the snack bar is on the far right as you come in, past the fireplace. Further in is a computer center with Braille displays and Braille printers as well as standard printers for your homework and the house library. We also have some gym equipment with Braille labels and space for independent living classes. Just so you know…" Cheryl turned to look at Spencer. "…in this house we don't allow male visitors above the first floor without prior permission. We do allow them down here though."

Well he wouldn't anyway. "This house? You have others?"

"Seven throughout the city, two are co-ed. The truth of it is that girls are more sheltered by their parents than boys in general, and the visually impaired are more sheltered than their sighted peers. So parents are going to be leery of sending their visually impaired daughter off to live in a dorm as soon as she gets out of high school. My company provides a transitory step, they aren't living at home, they have more freedom and can learn to live independently but there's someone keeping an eye on things while they do."

"It's actually kind of perfect." Susanna said, rejoining them once again. "Not that I'm high school age but I've never lived away from home before."

Cheryl smiled. "Want to check out your room?"

"Please."

They went up to the second floor. "Susanna you have the second door on the left." Cheryl told them. "We tell our residents to treat it just like a dorm room, make it their own."

Susanna opened the door, revealing a good sized room with a stripped bed and a chest of drawers. "It feels big." She said.

"It's nicer than my bedroom." Penelope said. "And nicer than any dorm room I ever saw."

"Same here," Spencer replied. It was in the corner of the house, comfortably airy, clean and well-kept, much nicer than the mean little attic room she'd lived in before. The other door in the room led to a bathroom with two sinks and a separate shower and toilet area. "Share a bathroom?"

"With the girl next door, yes." Cheryl replied. "There are a total of four residents, two to a bath. Mrs. Knox lives up on the third floor."

They all waited as Susanna explored. "Well, what do you think?" Penelope asked.

"I…I think it's perfect." Susanna admitted.

"Excellent!" Cheryl beamed. "So you'll be moving in tomorrow then?"

Susanna smiled. "Yes."