Chapter 13
Sam dug out the ol Santa suit and had the kids line up again to tell Santa what they wanted. This time Santa was confident of delivering whatever they wanted. The kids were a little nervous at first about approaching Santa after the last time when she ran out of the shelter blabbering and crying. The kids still didn’t know it was Sam. She sensed this and held out her opened arms and said, “I’m sorry I had to run out of the shelter earlier but there was an emergency at the North Pole, and we had to get it taken care of. Everything’s fine now and I’m ready to find out what everybody wants for Christmas. Don’t be shy now, tell Santa what you want, it can be anything!”
The kids became relaxed and ran up to Sam and began yelling out requests as they had done before. This time She was taking them all down. Sam acknowledged all the kids’ requests and gave out plenty of hugs. She and the kids talked about what they wanted and what they were going to do for several hours.
After it was all over Sam had a good feeling inside. It was a solid feeling she hadn’t felt in what seemed like forever. Brad came over to her and said, “Hey Sam, we might have trouble with some of these requests.”
“What do you mean.”
“Well, some of the kids are asking for jobs for their dad, and some want their mom to quit drinking. How we going to do anything about that?”
“We’ll contact some charity and make a large donation if they hire these kid’s dads. We’ll even pay their salaries, so the charities won’t be out on anything. We can find the best rehab around for drinkers and drug users. Also, check on getting some housing for the people that want it. This is going to be a good Christmas Brad. I don’t know how many years I can keep this up. I want it to be a good one for these kids. They deserve a break.”
“That’s a good idea Sam. I know the money has given you the ability to do these great things, but you have a good mind for this sort of thing too.”
“Thanks Brad. I probably wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for you and several other people in the area.”
This started Sam thinking, there were some people to thank that weren’t in the shelter. She was going to make some of her friends have a very Merry Christmas as well. She thought about Delvin and the Convenience store along with Tracy and Fitzgerald, the two foot patrol officers who took really good care of her when it counted.
“Hey Brad, I’ve got some things I need to do before tomorrow. Can you get some people to take care of those requests? I have an account set up to take care of everything. The people who do the shopping will be taken care of too. We’ll set everything up for tomorrow night in the main room of the shelter. We’ll have a Christmas celebration and sing Christmas Carols. Then Santa will come and pass out all the presents. Contact those charities to see about the jobs and I’ll get back with you later this evening. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me Brad.”
Brad smiled, “Sam, you don’t know how happy I am everything turned out like it did for you. I’ll talk to you later.”
Sam left the shelter. This time she was riding in a black Hummer and heading to the Worthington Hotel. The only five star hotel in Fort Worth. The Worthington was at the north end of downtown, ironically the complete opposite end of town from the Water Gardens. As she settled into her comfy cozy suite, she began thinking about the people sleeping just blocks south of her in the Water Gardens. She couldn’t get completely comfortable. She went down to the hotel lobby and chatted up the night clerk. The lobby was quiet. Not many people moving around as she approached the desk and asked him, “y’all full up tonight?”
The clerk looked up and smiled, “No ma’am, for this time of year it’s really slow.”
“How many rooms you got available?”
The clerk casually looked at the registration computer, “Oh, I guess we’ve got over thirty rooms vacant tonight.”
Sam told the clerk, “I want to reserve twenty of the rooms and I might need more.”
The guy was flabbergasted, “What? What do you mean?”
“Just put a hold on twenty rooms. Here, use this card to hold them.”
The desk man began fumbling around trying to figure out what to do, “Yes ma’am, when did you want these rooms.”
“In about twenty minutes. I’ll be back with a group of people, and I want them to be able to go straight up to their rooms. I’ll come back to the desk, and you can give me all their keys. Make this reservation for two nights. Now, will everything be ready when I come back?
“Yes ma’am. Yes ma’am. Just check back with me, I’ll have it all set for you.”
“Great, I’ll be back shortly.” Sam left the hotel and made the familiar walk down Commerce Street towards the Water Gardens. This is one of the few times she made the walk sober. She approached the entrance and there were homeless people that she recognized.
“Hey! All y’all, follow me. We’re all going to spend the night at the Worthington Hotel.”
The homeless guys were fairly lit up already. They laughed and turned away to go find a cubby hole for the night. Sam hadn’t counted on this, disbelief. She went up to a small group that was starting to separate, “Hey, wait! No, come with me, we have rooms.”
The group continued to disperse and others in the gardens were moving away from the area. They didn’t want any trouble. Sam suddenly jerked a hundred dollar bill out of her pocket and held it over her head, “Hey, anybody that follows me up to the Worthington Hotel and into a room gets one of these nice crisp hundred dollar bills!”
Now she was talking their language. They all understood cold hard cash. It was like feeding the pigeons in the park. A few breadcrumbs and suddenly there were hundreds of them. In this case fourteen homeless winos came out of the cubby holes to see what was going on. Sam still held the bill up high as bait, “Follow me and each of you will get one of these hundred dollar bills. You’re all gonna stay at the Worthington Hotel for two nights. After that we’ll discuss your future if you want, or you can come back down here. Let’s go!”
Several winos were mumbling, “She’s not going to give us the money. We need to get the money first. There’s no rooms for us at the Worthington.”
After a few blocks Sam stopped, “Okay, I’ll tell you what, we’ll go by the ATM, and I’ll get each one of you a hundred dollar bill. After that, you can do what you want. I’ve got rooms for everybody but if you’d rather go back down to the gardens that’s okay with me.”
That shut everybody up. They followed Sam to the Bank of America ATM two blocks from the hotel. She got out ten one hundred dollar bills. That’s all the machine would allow. She passed them out and told the four guys that were left out, “I’m sorry. The machine won’t give me anymore. I’ll get more tomorrow. If anybody wants to go back to the gardens go ahead. Whoever wants to, come with me to the hotel. We all have rooms.”
Everyone was still impressed with the cash distribution and followed her into the hotel. Even the guys who didn’t get any cash now believed. The entire crew filtered into the lobby with Sam leading them. She stood up on an expensive sofa in the lobby, “Okay guys, I’m getting you these rooms for two nights. Whatever you do with them is your business. Just have a good stay and for those who want, we’ll figure out something after this. Line up over by the elevators and I’ll give you your room keys.”
Sam walked over to the front desk amidst all the mumbling and asked the nervous night clerk for the keys to everyone’s room, “Okay pal, you got the keys all ready?”
“Yes, Ms. Coley, here’s your twenty room keys.”
She went to the head of the line and started passing out room keys. The guys started boarding elevators up to their individual rooms. The apprehension had now turned into smiles. There were many thanks and hugging. Sam was in her element. Making people happy. When it was all said and done, she still had six keys left. It was time to go out and find some more tenants for the Worthington.
Sam walked out into the street and knew exactly where to go. She walked down Main Street a couple of blocks and turned left. She went over several blocks to an old, abandoned building. There were several homeless people trying to settle down for the night. Sam walked up and disturbed them. It took some doing but she talked seven more people into coming to The Worthington with her. They arrived and went straight up to their rooms. The night was complete. A large segment of Fort Worth’s wino population was staying the night at the downtown five star hotel. The plan would not work out so well.
The next morning the hotel lobby was full of winos begging for money. When they tried to tell security and the police they were staying there, nobody cared. They were thrown out and told if they came back, they would be arrested.
