Around 8:00pm, Q.(my son) and I are dispatched to a little hotel in Harlem, off Lenox Avenue, to spend the night. The school bus carries us off into the breezy evening and I feel free from the dingy gray shelter.
"Oh, look Q, " I say, "there's Sylvia's Soulfood Restaurant, the Lenox Lounge!" I've always loved Harlem...but here we arrive at our destination.
It's seedy and the crackheads are acting "a fool" in the lobby. This can NOT be real as one crackhead picks up a long, steel pipe and threatens the other one. I'm sweating bullets, as I don't want to witness a murder! Things finally calm down and the hotel clerk signs us in, giving us our sheets, towels and toilet paper rations.
We ride the elevator to the 5th floor and push open the door. A guy holding a "40" is standing in the hallway corner, sneering at me and Q. We hurry to our room and lock the door behind us.
The room is not bad. Two single beds and a sink, the bathroom in the hallway. "Yeah, I can spend the night here." Glancing around the room, I look for the obligatory roach.
It's 9pm and Q. and I get ready for bed. You'd be surprised at how tired you can get just sitting around the shelter all day, doing nothing. We are exhausted. I ask Q. if I can leave the light on...he doesn't want to, but he allows it. We open our soda and chips. This is a no-no at the shelter property. It tastes soooo good...the simple things....
We plug the speakers into the CD player. The rapper's crooning and for a minute, I can believe we're on vacation, diggin' the scene....
Taken from my manuscript, "FAVOR"
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