Free The Hard Way by Carol Lea Benjamin

old lady?”
    Eddie made a face. “Not my type,” he told them, loud enough for Eunice to hear him, then softly, but she could still hear what he was saying, no problem, “Been following me around all day.”
    â€œHey,” the one without a hat said, pointing at Eunice, talking too loud, as if she was the one with the hearing problem, not the soldier. “You can stay here with us. He’ll bring you a plate.” Eunice saw him wink at Eddie. Everyone’s a comedian, she thought, no matter how cold it is, no matter what.
    Eunice shook her head. The man without the hat shrugged; she didn’t want to stay, that was fine with him. Who needed her anyway?
    Eddie headed for the nearest exit, Eunice following him, the dog in his wet sweater, only one this time, following Eunice.
    â€œSoup kitchen,” he mumbled.
    â€œDon’t like soup,” Eunice told his back.
    â€œYou’re in no position not to like soup,” Eddie told her. “It’s soup or the Dumpster.”
    â€œMaybe I was mistaken.”
    â€œYou mean now you like soup?”
    â€œTomato. Tomato rice isn’t bad either. Don’t like minestrone. Too many things in it. You never know what the hell you’re eating. Don’t like cold soup either. It gives me gas.”
    â€œNo one’s going to offer you cold soup in the winter,” he said.
    â€œCold soup’s for hot weather.” Shaking his head, amazed by how little some people knew.
    There were some homeless people milling about outside the church. Eddie headed up the stairs, turning when he was halfway to the door. “Hey,” he said to a crazy-looking man leaning on the railing, “they let dogs in here?”
    The man was talking, but not to Eddie. He seemed to be having a conversation with the snow, or maybe with a very small friend who was standing right in front of his unmatched shoes, someone too small for anyone else to see. Or maybe it was his shoes he was talking to, the left one on the right foot, the right on the left. Must be something in the water, Eunice thought, that stuff that prevents cavities, so many people crazed out of their minds. But Eddie just shrugged and headed in. Eunice stood on the sidewalk, Lookout at her side.
    â€œSpare some change?” Eunice asked two women sitting on the bottom step.
    â€œWhat are you, stupid?” the one with a blanket draped over her head asked. “I’d be sitting here in the snow if I had some change to spare?”
    Eunice shrugged. “Just asking,” she said. “The dog’s hungry.”
    â€œThe dog’s hungry,” the second woman said. “The dog’s hungry.” She had on a men’s tweed blazer, a sweatshirt underneath, the hood over her head. Eunice could see she was shivering andwondered why she wasn’t sitting inside. She looked up at the door. No soldier.
    Eunice sat on the steps, too, a foot or so away from the two women. “I’m looking for my old man,” she said, acting more like Eddie than herself, not interrogating the women, just having a little conversation. “He’s a little…” twirling her finger in a circle at the side of her head. “Wandered off. Tall guy. Exceptionally tall. Got a tattoo on his hand. A bird. Least, I think it’s a bird.” Eunice shrugged, wiped her nose with her glove again. She laughed. “Was a bird the last time I looked,” she said, “whenever the hell that was.”
    â€œYou talking about Florida?”
    Eunice turned to look at the one in the blanket, the one who’d said that.
    â€œYeah,” she said. “You know where he’s at?”
    â€œHangs out on the subway a lot. Doesn’t like the cold.”
    â€œRight,” she said, the dog looking up at her face, what’s up, what’s up, what’s up?
    â€œYou try Penn Station yet?”
    Eunice shook her head.
    â€œTry Penn Station. If you wanna