“Alright, you can have the room,” the old woman said. “You seem like a good person. But let me tell you somethin’. Don’t you be havin’ all kind of strange men runnin’ in and outta here at all times of the night. You’re only allowed one, maybe two, people at the most up in your room at a time. I got six rooms in here. If all my tenants had a lot of company, then it’s problems. Things get missin’ and my property get toe’ up! I worked too damn hard to let someone else destroy my house. You know what I mean? Anyway, I’ll need a hundred-dollar security deposit. Plus two weeks’ rent, up front …”

Third street was the name of the block Goldie now lived on. In Mount Vernon, this was as ghetto as it got. It was just as barren and bleak as her old neighborhood in Philly, just on a smaller scale. Here people, young and old, hung out on the avenue, signifying, drinking, smoking and selling drugs. This was the usual madness that went on in almost any minority community. It was Goldie’s home now, till the heat died down. When that would be there was no telling. For her sake, it had better be soon. She was thrown back into the same drug-plagued, negative environment she grew up in. Temptations, as well as her ghosts, were all around her. She was psychologically scarred. In her frame of mind, she was a disaster waiting to happen. Goldie was in the fight of her life, for her life.

Her room was small and cramped, but clean. The only things in it were a twin bed, small closet, night table, an old black-and-white TV, which sat atop a brown wooden beat-up dresser. She hadn’t seen one of these things in years. She wondered if they still made them. As long as the place was clean, it didn’t bother her that she didn’t have any of the comforts of home. She didn’t care about cable TV, DVDs or VCRs. She wasn’t really into them like that. She relished the fact that this room didn’t have all these electronic appliances. She welcomed the solitude and tranquillity that the house offered. Maybe now she could get her mind right. If anything, she was going to buy a radio so she could listen to some church music to hear God’s word day and night. That would be more than enough entertainment for her.