Free Eyes Of Danger by M. Garnet Page B

placed the looped ties over their necks. They then used their back packs as pillows, throwing the flat pillow on top and lying down, fully dressed. They pulled the threadbare blanket over their heads to block out the light and noise to settle down to sleep.
    It seemed like a smart way to protect everything, and still get some downtime, so I carefully repeated every move they had made. I was surprised to find that I did sleep. The noise level was a low murmur and the blanket blocked out the light.
     
    The next morning, I carefully peaked around my blanket as loud noises woke me up. My two guides from the night before were already gone from their bunks. I got up, gathered my stuff and followed the line to the bathrooms, taking my turn with several other women in using the very clean toilets. Oh, there were no doors for privacy, which also meant no hidden drug use. I brushed my teeth at one of the sinks in the row. These also were clean, so I made a point of taking a paper towel to wipe up after myself. I went out to pay for my night of sleep.
     
     

Chapter Seven
     
     
    I found out we were in a building attached to a very large Catholic Church. This church was generous. It was famous, so in this time of so many out of work and out of their homes, it was serving a great community purpose. Unfortunately, it was almost overwhelmed.
    I helped out in the morning, then stayed around to help in the kitchen for the large numbers of homeless that would be served for the supper crowd. After that I settled down again to sleep. Then, one of the priests who ran the whole HELP Center offered me a job. It didn’t pay much, but it gave me a purpose. The kitchen area was a safe center where no one asked a lot of questions. The faces of those coming and going didn’t want to exchange a lot of information. They kept conversations down to the weather, or where to get handouts. There was information on clothes, free condoms, and health care.
    I actually enjoyed working at the HELP Center . The people who came here for help were not the usual street people or drug bums. They were nice people in trouble. Businesses either cutting back or closed down had heavily hit this community. These families couldn’t find enough money to move. Every other house had either a For Sale sign or a Repossess sign.
    I even helped in the little office tucked behind all the boxes with large jars of mustard and pickles. They had an old donated computer. I did what I could to update the accounting system to make it easier to keep up with their supplies. I got a lot of praise from everyone, because, now, they were able to find things and know when they ran out of sugar. I wasn’t stupid, so I didn’t do any surfing even when a couple of kids asked me to look for some sites they were interested in on the Internet.
    I was working with Kathy Hellman, a volunteer of about fifty who spent a lot of time at the church in the kitchen. I used my real name as I didn’t think anyone would be looking for me in a church kitchen. I knew Kathy had another full time job. I understood she did not have any life outside of her church work. This was okay with me. To each his own. She could have chosen worse. There were lots of fifty-year-old single women sitting on bar stools every night.
    Kathy made her friends at the church in the kitchen. She decided I was a new friend so that was why she greeted me. She found excuses to work near me when shecame in on evening duty. One evening she was helping me with the final cleaning in the kitchen and she started talking.
    “Michelle, I work in the FEMA office and I told them about what you did on the old computer here. We have a job for you. How about coming in tomorrow.”
    I was shocked. I looked at her as I put the large pans away in the open cabinets. I just stood there looking at her. My going to work in a Government office was the very last thing that I wanted to do. I couldn’t believe that she had even told someone about me. “Gee,