Read Online Destiny (Waiting for Forever) by Jamie Mayfield - Free Book Online
Authors: Jamie Mayfield
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find one person in this sea of humanity?
Turning right, I found the trolley stop a block over, just as the guy had said. Checking the map, I figured out that the next scheduled trolley would stop about two blocks from the library. The huge, red open-air trolley was like nothing I had ever seen before. It was interesting to watch the different buildings pass as I waited for my stop.
What I was trying to do seemed so impossible. I kept telling myself that I had made it to San Diego, which was the first step in a very long list. If I kept breaking it down into a series of small steps and focused on just one step at a time, I could make it. So I focused completely on finding the library so I could look online for a place to live.
The walk from the trolley stop wasn’t long, and I found the library without a problem, making sure to note the names of the streets that would take me back to the hotel. I walked in through the huge double doors and followed the signs to the front desk.
“How can I help you?” The woman behind the desk reminded me of Carolyn. She was slight, with graying light-brown hair and glasses sliding down her nose. Immediately I noticed that her eyes were kind and her smile was warm.
“I’m new here and looking for a place to live. I was wondering if you had public Internet access.” She was already in motion before I had finished my sentence.
“Yes, you can access the Internet from the computers in the west room. We also have newspapers that you can use to check the classifieds. They may actually be of more use to you than the Internet. Some of the sites that people tend to use to rent apartments or rooms don’t keep their information properly maintained, so there are a lot of stale ads containing places that are already taken.”
“I’ve been looking in the newspaper I get at the hotel, but I’m sure you have more. Are they in the west room as well?” I followed her to a huge rack of newspapers on wooden dowels. There must have been two or three dozen.
“You’re only looking for local papers,” she said, pulling several dowels from their places and handing them to me. “I’d start with these, but you could probably find places in a few others.”
“Thank you so much,” I told her, and as she went back to the front desk, I spread the papers out on a nearby table. I set my backpack next to me in a chair while I worked, finding available rooms in my price range and cross-referencing them with the map and the bus schedule. Most of them gave vague directions like “North Park” or “Hillcrest,” which made it harder to figure out if they would work for me. It was a long, tedious process, and by the time I finished, there were only half a dozen viable options on the list. Disappointment weighed me down as I put the papers I’d gathered back on their racks. I started going through the other newspapers, trying desperately to find more places to call. Most of the dowels contained national papers, but one near the bottom caught my attention.
Gay and Lesbian Times.
Looking over my shoulder to make sure no one was around, I pulled the dowel from the rack and carried it back to the table I’d been working at. The paper was full of stories all about gay and lesbian news in San Diego and around the country. There were articles about things happening around the city and editorials by people who sounded proud to be gay. I had never imagined that kind of openness and acceptance of who I was. Quickly, I turned to the classified ads.
Hillcrest—Room for rent,
gay men only, $550 shared bath.
619-555-1212 after 5pm
The price was lower than the other rooms I had written down. I was used to sharing a bathroom with Richard and Carolyn, so I didn’t really care about that. It was a room for rent to gay men only, and that sounded like it might be somewhere I would feel welcomed, not just somewhere I could stay. After writing the number down quickly, I looked at the time on my phone and was
Turning right, I found the trolley stop a block over, just as the guy had said. Checking the map, I figured out that the next scheduled trolley would stop about two blocks from the library. The huge, red open-air trolley was like nothing I had ever seen before. It was interesting to watch the different buildings pass as I waited for my stop.
What I was trying to do seemed so impossible. I kept telling myself that I had made it to San Diego, which was the first step in a very long list. If I kept breaking it down into a series of small steps and focused on just one step at a time, I could make it. So I focused completely on finding the library so I could look online for a place to live.
The walk from the trolley stop wasn’t long, and I found the library without a problem, making sure to note the names of the streets that would take me back to the hotel. I walked in through the huge double doors and followed the signs to the front desk.
“How can I help you?” The woman behind the desk reminded me of Carolyn. She was slight, with graying light-brown hair and glasses sliding down her nose. Immediately I noticed that her eyes were kind and her smile was warm.
“I’m new here and looking for a place to live. I was wondering if you had public Internet access.” She was already in motion before I had finished my sentence.
“Yes, you can access the Internet from the computers in the west room. We also have newspapers that you can use to check the classifieds. They may actually be of more use to you than the Internet. Some of the sites that people tend to use to rent apartments or rooms don’t keep their information properly maintained, so there are a lot of stale ads containing places that are already taken.”
“I’ve been looking in the newspaper I get at the hotel, but I’m sure you have more. Are they in the west room as well?” I followed her to a huge rack of newspapers on wooden dowels. There must have been two or three dozen.
“You’re only looking for local papers,” she said, pulling several dowels from their places and handing them to me. “I’d start with these, but you could probably find places in a few others.”
“Thank you so much,” I told her, and as she went back to the front desk, I spread the papers out on a nearby table. I set my backpack next to me in a chair while I worked, finding available rooms in my price range and cross-referencing them with the map and the bus schedule. Most of them gave vague directions like “North Park” or “Hillcrest,” which made it harder to figure out if they would work for me. It was a long, tedious process, and by the time I finished, there were only half a dozen viable options on the list. Disappointment weighed me down as I put the papers I’d gathered back on their racks. I started going through the other newspapers, trying desperately to find more places to call. Most of the dowels contained national papers, but one near the bottom caught my attention.
Gay and Lesbian Times.
Looking over my shoulder to make sure no one was around, I pulled the dowel from the rack and carried it back to the table I’d been working at. The paper was full of stories all about gay and lesbian news in San Diego and around the country. There were articles about things happening around the city and editorials by people who sounded proud to be gay. I had never imagined that kind of openness and acceptance of who I was. Quickly, I turned to the classified ads.
Hillcrest—Room for rent,
gay men only, $550 shared bath.
619-555-1212 after 5pm
The price was lower than the other rooms I had written down. I was used to sharing a bathroom with Richard and Carolyn, so I didn’t really care about that. It was a room for rent to gay men only, and that sounded like it might be somewhere I would feel welcomed, not just somewhere I could stay. After writing the number down quickly, I looked at the time on my phone and was
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