Their next major stop was Memphis, Tennessee. They had heard a lot about Memphis, the house of the
king of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley. The driver of the bus stopped for dinner in a parking lot of a restaurant. Again Jacob and Helen knew the deal the driver had With he owner of the restaurant. He even announced before he stopped the bus that the restaurant is a very good place for dinner and the prices were reasonable. They had no breakfast and a very small lunch, not enough to hold them down until they would get to their final destination. Now they knew it would be Dallas, Texas. Jacob said:
"Let's go and eat something!"
Helen's answer was no again even though her growling stomach said a different thing. They bought two burgers with french fries. They ate it sitting in the bus. They both seemed much happier, more alert with full stomach; however both were thinking the same thing: "What are we going to do?"
Helen pondered over that she had no feeling for Jacob. The only reason he was her boyfriend was because of his willingness to runaway with her and because he was generally a very decent young man. A few times he had tried to kiss her, but she had stopped her. He listened to her and obeyed everything she said or asked of him. She hated herself for this! She was giving a false hope to a boy, who had had a miserable life; but on the other hand, she thought: "I didn't force him to come with me!"
When they were finally in Dallas, they left the bus station with their two small bags. They felt lost in a big city with no aim, no money, no friend, or relative. The weather was so different than Chicago that they took their sweaters off and stuffed it into their bags. Jacob had a tee shirt on under his sweater and Helen had a blouse on. They began walking in the warm morning of Dallas to nowhere. They did not know where they were going, or what their plan was! As they were walking aimlessly to nowhere on the warm Tuesday morning of the early spring, they passed a Safeway grocery store.
"I think I saw a sign of Help Wanted on the door!" Jacob held Helen's hand and brought her to stop.
"Oh, let's go inside and find out!" She said joyfully.
They both got a job that morning. Jacob would work in the storage room so when the trucks came , he and couple of other young men would load and unload the goods from trucks, and then would open the boxes to distribute the merchandises to the right place. Helen would work inside the store as some one to put the merchandises on the shelves and put the prices on them with a hand machine. The manager of the store liked Helen's look right away and thought that in a few months she would work in the front. He told himself: "What a beautiful girl!"
But when it came to filling up the application and information about places of their birth, where they lived, and .... They both were horrified. They had no references, no addresses, no guardian, or parents that they would want to mention! The manger listened to their stories. He saw the stub of their bus thickets that they just had arrived from Chicago. He saw their small bags of clothing. For some reason, unknown to them, he believed their stories of running away from evil parents. He truly felt sorry for them.
"There is a shelter not very far from here. A church runs it. Go after work there. They feed you. They let you to use their facilities and shower. I don't know about sleeping arrangement. I guess you can sleep in the church.
☖ ☖ ☖
To Be Continued
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