Marvel

Marvel was as hungry as a pigeon. That was because she'd been eating up until yesterday noon. Yesterday was when she used up the last of her money. She paid her rent. Now she needed to find some food. She walked down Damen. She thought about her situation. Rent paid, but no food. What was she going to do for the rest of the month? And how would she pay next month's rent?

She was as determined as an arrow not to fall into ways as easy as a dark cloud you can fall through, of getting money. So far she'd succeeded. But she could see how a person could be squeezed into a corner.

In fact, she looked up. She hadn't been alert. Someone was flirting with her from a passing car.

She was 50 and as good looking as a leopard. She knew it, and that she looked more like 40 and she knew women were still beautiful at 40, just one year more than 39. But she of course had ignored the young black man in the beat up car who'd complimented her.

But, oh no, he was coming around again like a broken record to bother her. It might not be as safe as she thought. She carefully observed her surroundings. There wasn't much traffic or people. This could be as dangerous as a heart attack. She remembered then that it was the 4th of July and people weren't travelling to work or going anywhere.

He was stopping his car and getting out. She decided to cross the street as defensively as a bird sitting on a crocodile, although she wasn't going that way. She hoped he wouldn't follow. But there he was behind her like a shark. So she kept walking in the street on the side where cars had to go around her a little to avoid her. The day was as overcast as he was shady which didn't add to her safety. Just because she was light skinned didn't mean she had to put up with this man, she thought. Luckily he didn't try anything and finally he was gone.

The food pantry didn't open 'til 10 a.m. It was only 8:30. But she was on her way. But, come to think of it, would they be as open as the freeway was to cars, on July 4th? What would she do if they weren't? She thought of her daughter, then her mother. In fact she'd turn around and go to her daughter's first.

It would take a few days of fasting to lose her appetite she thought. Now she was as hungry as a bear after hibernating all winter. She got to her daughter, Dana's, third floor apartment in the same project Marvel lived in.

She was disappointed in how Dana had turned out. Dana was mean like the giant in "Jack and the Bean Stalk." Where'd that come from? She'd tried to teach her just the opposite through the years.

Marvel thought she did know, though, where it came from. When Dana was only one year old Marvel had left her with that awful babysitter. One day when Marvel had come to pick her up she'd found her screaming in a puddle of water in diapers as wet as the oceans; and wasn't that the same day her sitter's 8 year old son had Dana's bottle in his mouth and was drinking all her milk? That must have been why she was screaming.

"I should never have left her with that sitter," she thought . "But I didn't have anywhere else to leave her. Mother was sick and needed an operation. But I shouldn't have left her there no matter what, even if I lost my job."

Marvel knocked on the door, then tried it. It was open. So she went in. Her daughter's two little children were crawling around the kitchen which looked like a storm had come through. The older one ran up to Marvel and threw her arms around her legs, "Hi Grandma"!

"Hi Charlotte. How are you behaving? And Nana, how are you"? she said reaching over to the baby.

Then she greeted her daughter and said, "Do you have anything to eat? I'm hungry."

"You can have that bread. That's all I've got right now. We're short ourselves."

She took the piece of stone like bread figuring it was better than nothing and left, this time, for her mother's apartment in the same project on the 7th floor. She'd have to walk up. Of course the elevators from a by gone day were in ruins. And even when they worked she wouldn't take them. They could entrap people with gang members at any time. Her mother hardly left her apartment. She was a prisoner in a tower.

Marvel hoped there'd be some food at her mother's apartment. Three of her brothers usually stayed at her mother's for lack of a better place. She had another brother and two sisters who were relatively successful. They had moved to Oak Park and had children in college. But these three, her younger brothers, had had a lot of trouble making a "go" of it. They'd get a job, lose it, be without a purpose for a while, then get another little job- never anything permanent, never any adequate wages. But because of their stick-to-itiveness none of them had gotten into trouble. And they sometimes volunteered to help the kids at the social center. They all still loved basketball and felt they were a good influence when they played with the kids.

Her brothers might have eaten all the food, she thought. But she knew her mother would share anything she had with her. She was wonderfully good hearted. She empathized with Marvel and had the attitude of--What's mine is yours.

"Hi, Mother. Is there anything to eat"?

"Yes. Look in the refrigerator. Do you feel like meat and potatoes? There's some from yesterday."

"Yes. I didn't eat much yesterday. And I've got nothing left in my house. I'm hungry. So this'll be just fine."

Marvel warmed it up for herself and sat down to eat. Her mother came over to talk to her.

"So how's everything"?

"Well I used up all my money. I don't know how I'm going to eat all month or pay the rent next month. I paid this month's yesterday."

Her mother started shutting her eyes and pulling back.

"Don't tell me any more."

Marvel knew it was raising her mother's blood pressure. She could only stand to hear good news.
'It wasn't that Marvel was uneducated. She typed well and she had experience as a programmer analyst. But there were no jobs. The last time she'd gone to apply as a temp there'd been nothing. And that was 5 years ago when the economy was much better.

Now she was rushing out to try to get to the food pantry by 10 a.m. She'd soon be hungry again.

The pantry was at All Saints Church in the basement. A line that looked as long as a telephone wire curved around the edge of the church. It must be open today. She saw women with children in line. "That must be like facing death," she thought.

She waited a long time in line and spoke to the people near her. A mother held the hand of her four year old daughter who looked like she was in danger of disappearing she was so pale and thin. Marvel asked, "It's open. Isn't it"?

"Yes. Thank the Lord," said the rather expressionless woman.

"Do they give everybody a bag the way they used to'?

"Well, everyone I've ever seen. But they ask you questions ya know."

"Oh yes. I know that. But I've never seen them turn anyone away. Have you"?

"No. Never. I've been coming ever since it opened about 10 years ago."

"You have? Is this your only daughter"?

"Yes. I was with my mother 10 years ago. But she moved down South. And now I'm with my daughter."
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"You live in the projects. Don't you? I think I've seen you there."

"Yes. You live there'?

"Yes."

"Do you have any children"?

"Only one daughter, like you. But she's grown."

They stopped talking. The woman behind Marvel asked the other woman, "You say you've been coming here a while"?

"Yes."

"Do you know that guy working here"?

"Not really."

"He's kind of fresh. Isn't he"?

"He never bothered me. But I've heard someone complaining about him."

Eventually she got to the front of the line. She went over to the cubicle where the man took information on her- name, address, where she last worked and when. He said she could get a box of food but couldn't come back for another two weeks for more.

"Would you like to work here'? he asked after a while. "$6.00 an hour. You'd be asking questions like me."

"Sure," said Marvel, "Who wouldn't"? But then the way he looked at her scared her. And then he took her back to an area where the food was and no people and started asking if he could come over to her apartment. She said-no- and he said then there's no job.

When she got home with her food it was 1:00 p.m. She was hungry and was going to make some macaroni and cheese. But she knew she should look for a job even though it was as hard as walking backwards up a mountain. She said to herself, "Seek and you shall find," as it said in the gospel, and she had often found it to be as true as the sky is blue. But there was little or no work near her home. She would be able to look at a temp agency downtown. But she'd have to wait 'til tomorrow since it would take a long time to get downtown. She was glad she could have her macaroni and didn't have to look 'til tomorrow. She could relax the rest of the day.

The next morning she was up with the garbage trucks, getting as ready as a death row prisoner before a lethal injection. She had no bus fare. The only way she might get downtown was if she could hitch a ride with Sam, her neighbor cab driver. She looked out to see if she could see his cab parked outside somewhere. There it was. He was home. He sometimes went downtown looking for customers and would take her with him. But if he got a customer she'd have to go all the way to wherever first before continuing back downtown and so on if there'd be more customers. Sometimes it took her 4 hours to get downtown. The better his luck was, the worse hers was, and vice versa. But she knew she must "Seek and you shall find."

She left her apartment and ran down to Sam's apartment. His wife looked out at the window.

"Do you think I could get a ride downtown from Sam"? Marvel asked.

Daisy answered, "I suppose so if he ever gets out of here. What do you need to go downtown for"?

"I need a job."

"And you think you'll get one there"?

"It's worth a try. Isn't it"?

"I don't know if it's worth it any more."

"It costs so much to look."

Sam came out and soon Marvel was in the front seat of the cab going downtown. After a couple hours she was downtown right near the building she wanted to get to. Now where was it? She knew it was on Jackson- but how far West? She got out of the cab not knowing how she'd return with no money in her pocket. And she started walking West, passing lots of people. She was sure it was on the South side of Jackson. But she didn't see anything that looked like it for three blocks. She decided to walk one more block, and if she didn't see it, she didn't know what she was going to do. She walked another block and didn't see it anywhere. Then the idea occurred to her that maybe it was East of State. She walked back and there it was- shining like a star in front of her.

She ascended on the elevator after checking the floor for the employment agency whose name she recognized only when seeing it on the list.

Up like a roller coaster on the 14th floor she looked for the door that said Kent Temporaries. When she got there she went through the usual routines: application; typing, computer, math, and reading tests. After taking the tests she knew she'd done as well an expert. Then the interview. She spoke to the man in charge. She thought his name might be Kent.

"Miss Johnson, I'll put your name on the list. You'll probably be called on average once a week. There's so little work and we want to divide it up so everyone on the list can get something. The pay is usually about $12.00 an hour."

She made the calculations in her head and realized she thought she could live on that. Thank heavens she still had "el cheapo" rent. A few months back she had been tempted to move into an apartment that was as pretty as a puppy, but unsubsidized. Now she was glad she hadn't.

She had been working at the Board of Education. But when they got new computer programs she was displaced along with 50 other employees. That was eight months ago.

"I accept," she told Mr. Kent, "But I'm so broke I won't even be able to make it to my first assignment because I don't have bus fare."

"I could give you a forward on your first pay," He offered.

"O.K.," she said.

He called his secretary, "Would you make out a check to help Miss Johnson out to be deducted from her first pay for" -- and he paused, "$50.00."

Then Marvel had to say, "I don't even have bus fare home and I need cash for that."

Out of his pocket he got the money, $1.50.

She took the "el" home with a smile on her face and the sun was shining. The world looked so beautiful.















































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