Homeless, part one

The realization that she had nowhere to go startled Leta. It was early morning. The stranger she had spent her night with was dressing in the other room and expecting her to be dong the same. She was sitting in her slip on the bed, the very one she had been sleeping so soundly in only thirty minutes before.

How had she slept so soundly? she asked herself. The sour taste in her mouth and the dull throbbing in her head gave her the answer.

She had started to drink early in the evening, afternoon really. The speakeasy wasn’t even officially open, but the door was unlocked. When she sat at the bar, one of the two servers that were bustling around took one look at her and asked her what she wanted. The options, as they were at other establishments at different times, were few: gin, whiskey or, since she was a lady, brick wine. Leta selected whiskey.

A mirror on the back wall reflected her image back to her, but she refused to look. If she looked anywhere near how she felt, then she didn’t want to see herself at all. She was rumpled, stiff and exhausted. Her eyes were red and swollen, her cheeks wan, her lips in a grim line. In fact, her entire face had seemed to fall at least half an inch while remaining in place only by the sheer effort of her equally tired skin. She had been crying hard. In fact, she spent a full fifteen minutes in the alley behind the speakeasy convulsing in large sobs before she approached the door.

She had left her husband after only a few months of marriage, and more devastating, she had taken her children to live with their father—a former husband—because having left her current husband, she would have no way to take care of them. A year ago at this time, before she married Leech Hoose, she and the children were living in poverty. She did not want to put them through the same struggle again.

Although Leech had a steady income, he maintained the strictest control over the money. He paid all the bills, even when she or the children needed new socks or something for school, he would make the purchase. He didn’t even give her an allowance for personal items, such as cosmetics. Once her daughter asked for a nickel to go to the moving pictures with her friends. He gave her permission to go, but walked with her to the cinema and paid for the ticket himself.

Leech hated that Leta took in sewing for a few pennies. His reasoning was that she had enough to do taking care of him and the children, and further a married woman should not take away employment from someone who needed it. Although she told him she stopped, she still continued to do accept some projects that she could do secretly, when he was at work. This was the only way she could start to save money of her own, which she kept hidden in the kitchen. Leech would have nothing to do with the kitchen, except to eat there. Unfortunately, she had not had much time to accumulate very much, only three dollars, before she realized that continuing to live with him was impossible. On a Friday in September, she packed her children’s things, and took them to their father right after they arrived home from school. Her husband was still at work. She checked her watch. He would be there for at least another hour.

Once she left her children and her heart behind, she walked directly to this speakeasy. She had never been to this one, which is what she wanted. Here she could drown her sorrows without being questioned or noticed by anyone she knew.

The barkeep brought her the drink. She drank it down in one gulp, the warm liquid stretching through her entire body as it went down.

“Ma’am?” the server questioned. She put the glass down.

“Another,” she ordered.

“Maybe I should put some ice in it,” he suggested as he lifted the glass. “That’s some pretty strong stuff.”

Leta looked him right in the eye. “No, thank you,” she said. “Straight up.”

He paused a moment to size her up. She returned his gaze, while she felt her entire body relax from the first drink. Finally, he sighed and turned away. A few minutes later, he gave her another glass.

“I need to step away for about fifteen minutes,” he said. “Do you think this will last you?”

“Yes, I think so,” she answered with a smile.

To be continued.