with the clothes on my back.” Sinclair began when the woman came back with two glasses of lemonade and a plate of cookies on a rolling table which she placed between the two of them.
“I traveled through eight states with less than fifty dollars to my name. Some people said DC had better services for aged out kids, but when I got here I found out that it was a lie. Everything was exactly the same as in Oregon. While I was homeless I saw some many horrifying things no one should have to see but I refused to accept my conditions so I did something about it. I realized when I was a kid no one would help you better than you.” Sinclair paused and took a sip of lemonade.
“I met Miss Marjorie after spending so much time using her public computers in her bookstore while trying to find resources to help myself. She was my first real friend ever and she genuinely cared about me. Before she died she told me to turn the store into a place to continue to help aged out people like myself. I have honored her dying wish but if I lose the agency I will feel like I failed her and I can’t do that because she did so much for me. Miss Louise, I love Kingston from the bottom of heart but because of him I might fail Miss Marjorie.” Sinclair said as the dam finally broke and tears came rushing from her eyes.
Louise jumped out of her seat and hugged Sinclair while one stylist grabbed a box of Kleenex for her.
“Honey, it’s okay. But what you just told me you need to tell Kingston. He needs to know why you are so hurt. He needs to know.” Louise said as she comforted Sinclair.
“I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to start crying like a big baby in the salon.” Sinclair said while drying her eyes with the Kleenex the stylist handed her.
“Don’t worry about it. Why do you think I scheduled the appointment so late in the day? I knew the salon would be empty this time of day and that would be perfect.” Louise said looking into Sinclair’s tear stained face. “I am so glad God put you two together because you both have hearts of gold. This is just something you have to go through to make your relationship stronger.” Louise said as she handed Sinclair her lemonade and took her seat to finish getting her hair done.
“I met Pastor Carter on a bus stop in 1968 in Philadelphia when I was nineteen years old. He was stopped at the light and he asked me why I was on the bus stop so I asked him why he was driving.” Louise said as both the ladies chuckled. “I didn’t want to tell him I was just resting from my one mile walk and I still had another mile to go. I was raised by my grandparents because my mother had so many other kids that she couldn’t care for me. I knew money was really tight so I took the bus to school in the morning and walked home afterwards. With the bus fare I saved I used that money to buy food for the house.” Louise said as she took a cookie off the tray.
“Anyway, I would see Pastor Carter every day and he would offer me a ride but I always turned him down. Then on one day I didn’t see him pull up at the normal time and I actually thought something happened to him. I heard what sounded like a doorbell and I turned around to see Pastor Carter riding his bike while pushing a pink one with a bow on it for me.”
Louise remembered that day just like it happened yesterday. “I married him six months later. He saw I needed more than just a ride every now and then so he went and did something to help me. I rode that bike until the tires literally fell off and Pastor Carter put them back on again. Kingston is just like his father in every aspect and his intentions are only to help you, not hurt you. He sees you carrying so much around that he wants to help alleviate your load. My son is deeply in love with you because of the special person that you are. You may be hurting, but you need to get up and fight for you man if