Her ride through the underground subway tunnels and to high elevated tracks ended an hour and a half later, at 241st Street. Once again, she struggled with her luggage. But a Good Samaritan finally came to her aid. He helped her down the flight of stairs to the street, where she hopped into a gypsy cab. She gave him the address and he drove her there. The rooming house was no more than a converted private house. On the outside, it looked nice. Goldie hoped the same could be said for the inside. She kept her fingers crossed.

Goldie looked at the classified ad one more time, just to be sure she was at the right place. Things seemed to be in order, so she rang the bell.

“Who iz it?” a woman’s voice demanded to know, from behind the front door.

“My name iz …” she began, “Gloria. I saw ya ad in da paper about a room for rent. And I came over ta check it out …”

With that said, she began to hear the sound of the door unlocking.

The door swung open and there stood a small, black, mean-looking old lady.

“This must be ya lucky day,” the woman commented. “I just had to evict one a my tenants not too long ago … I was just cleaning up the room now … You wouldn’t believe how some people live. He was a nasty son of a gun—”

“So, you do have a room available?” she inquired.

“Sure do,” the old woman replied. “But I don’t take in just any ole body. The last time I did that … Boy! I was too nice …” She was the owner of the property; she owned it but didn’t live there. She had another house around the corner, where she stayed. Often, she would drop by on the spur of the moment to check up on her tenants. At one time, she only came by once a week to collect the rent, until things got out of hand. One of her borders had turned the rooming house into a full-fledged crack house. Ever since then, she’s been popping up at all times of the day and night. She cleaned house, throwing out all the deadbeats and undesirables.

“Listen, young lady. There are rules in this here house. And if you’re not good at following rules, ain’t no sense in you comin’ in.”

“I can follow rules, ma’am,” she stated with a hint of desperation in her voice. “I won’t be no trouble, no trouble at all … I don’t bother nobody … I stay ta myself … You won’t even know I’m here.”

“I heard that before,” the old woman said sarcastically as she scrutinized the person in front of her. Usually she was a good judge of character.

“I promise, ma’am, you will not have no trouble outta me,” Goldie reiterated.