to the nice house on Reed Street. Boisterous, disheveled people looking bitter and tortured were standing on street corners drinking alcohol straight out of the bottle. “Did you have to go this way to get to a downtown Travelodge?” I asked.
“I take best route!” the man snapped, waving his hand impatiently.
I had taken a lot of cabs to get from one place to another in Richland. I knew how some greedy cab drivers purposely drove people out of the way so the meter would go higher.
“Well, I’ve only got ten dollars,” I lied. The meter was already up to eight dollars and sixty cents. The driver didn’t say anything. He just let out a long sigh.
We passed some of the same factories and the same grocery stores a second time. Then, miraculously, two blocks over was the Travelodge. The meter was up to nine dollars and eighty cents. I grabbed my two suitcases and got out as fast as I could. The driver made no attempt to get out to help me. I handed him a ten, and said, “Keep the change.” He looked at the crumpled bill, rolled his eyes at me, then sped off.
I had never stayed in a motel or hotel before in my life. This one reminded me of most of the shacks we had lived in in Florida. The room was small and dark, but it was clean. I had a decent bathroom with plenty of fluffy white towels, a mini refrigerator, and a color TV. Before I even took off my coat, I called Muh’Dear and was glad she didn’t answer. I needed time to gather my thoughts and continue to try and come up with a plan. Caleb had offered to give me some phone numbers of some of his relatives, but I didn’t take them. After some of the things I’d heard about his relatives from Pee Wee, they didn’t sound like the type of people I wanted as new friends. Some had prison records, and some were violent and couldn’t be trusted he had told me.
Walking two blocks I discovered a decent-looking restaurant near the motel. I ate a roast beef dinner and picked up a newspaper on my way back to my room. I was not impressed with the Erie Review want ads. Most of the office jobs required some college and experience, and the restaurants wanted waitresses with experience. I couldn’t drive that well, so the ad for cab drivers was useless. There were two types of positions listed that I was qualified for: housekeeper and factory worker. Well, I was not wild about becoming a housekeeper. I had come too far for that. Even though I knew that Muh’Dear loved cooking and cleaning and raising other folks’ kids, I didn’t. I circled an ad for the Erie Manu-factoring Company, where they assembled garage-door openers, and a place called Bolton’s, where they assembled airplane-engine parts.
I waited another hour before I called Muh’Dear again. This time Mr. King answered the phone. “It’s me. I just wanted to let Muh’Dear…and you know I made it all right. Is my mama there?”
“She in the shower,” Mr. King told me. “But I’ll sure and tell her you called.” I chatted with him for a few minutes, then hung up.
I guess I was more tired than I realized. I fell into a deep sleep and didn’t wake up until noon the next day. I could survive without working for a few months if I lived cheaply with the money I had. I picked up the newspaper again and turned to the section advertising places for rent. Even though Erie didn’t look too much better than Richland, the rents were surprisingly high. I didn’t see a single ad for a studio for less than a hundred dollars. In Richland you could rent a fully furnished studio in a fairly nice neighborhood for fifty dollars or less, and that would include utilities! My Travelodge room was fifteen dollars a day, and I had no cooking facilities. After looking through the want ads, I wasn’t sure I would find an affordable place and a job in one week. I pulled out the yellow pages and called a dozen more downtown motels looking for cheaper ones, or at least one with a kitchenette. Seven of the dozen charged ten dollars a day but none of them had cooking facilities. Five told me I’d be allowed to use a hot plate and I could store perishable items in the