bus stopped in front of the old Reading Railroad Terminal at Lehigh Avenue, not far at all from the Pennsylvania Railroad ’s North Philadelphia Station, the four people sitting in the two seats to the left of Marion all got up at once and exited the bus.
Marion quickly moved across the aisle. The sweating had stopped, but it left him feeling clammy and uncomfortable.
There is no question that the Lord wants me to do something in connection with the Divine Lorraine Hotel. But what?
Three blocks past the North Philadelphia Station, Marion saw the hardware store he thought he remembered. And it was even larger, and thus more likely to carry what he needed to complete the list, than he had remembered.
He got off the bus at the next stop, crossed North Broad Street, and walked back toward the hardware store.
He passed a Super Discount Store, the windows of which were emblazoned with huge signs reading SALE!
And in one of the windows, under a SALE! sign with an arrow pointing downward there was a stack of AWOL bags. These were not only of better quality than the three he had bought on Market Street, but of different design. Their straps went completely around the bag. They had metal zippers, and they did not have Souvenir of Asbury Park, N. J., and a fish leaping out of the surf gaudily painted on their sides.
Marion went into the Super Discount Store and bought two of the AWOL bags, one in a rather nice shade of dark blue, the other in sort of a rusty brown. He put the blue one inside the brown one, and thought that he would have plenty of space left over for the chain.
The clerk in the hardware store told Marion that they stocked a wide variety of chains, and if Marion would tell him what he wanted the chain for, six lengths each twenty-two inches long, they could make sure he was getting the right thing.
Marion was fairly certain that the man was more garrulous than suspicious, but he could not, of course, tell him what he really wanted the chain for. He had considered this sort of question coming up, of course, and was ready for him. He told the clerk that he had to lock six steel casement windows, and that he would also need six padlocks.
The clerk told him that not only did the store stock a wide array of padlocks, but that he thought it would be possible to furnish six locks all of which would operate with the same key.
Marion told him that would be unnecessary but nice.
The clerk was similarly garrulous when Marion informed him that he would need both duct and electrical tape. Marion was astonished at the wide selection available, and made his choice by selecting the most expensive tapes he was shown. That would, he believed, make the clerk happy.
Marion was not annoyed with the clerk. Quite to the contrary. In this day and age it was a pleasant surprise to find a clerk who seemed genuinely interested in pleasing the customer.
He paid for the tape and the chain, and put it all in the AWOL bag, shook the clerk’s hand, thanked him for his courtesy, and went back out onto Broad Street.
That completed acquisition of the items on the list.
But now there was a new problem. The Divine Lorraine Hotel.
Was that simply coincidence? Thinking of “Sweet Lorraine” to the point of distraction all day? Or is the Lord telling me something?
Marion stood on the curb for a minute or two, considering that problem.
A taxicab, thinking he was seeking a ride, pulled to the curb.
Marion was on the verge of waving it away, when he suddenly had a thought, almost as if the Lord had put it there.
There were half a dozen ways to get from where I stand to the house. Only one of them leads back past the Divine Lorraine Hotel. If the Lord has nothing in mind vis-à-vis the Divine Lorraine Hotel, the chances are five, or more, out of six that the taxi driver will elect not to pass in front of the Divine Lorraine Hotel. On the other hand, if the taxi driver elects to drive past the Divine Lorraine Hotel, the odds that the Lord wishes me to do something involving the hotel would certainly be on the order of six to one.
Marion got in the taxicab and gave him his address.
The driver headed right down North Broad Street. When they reached Ridge