The Cracked Acorn: At the Door

Once upon a time in the early 60s there were two young ladies just out of the Marine Corps; they happened to be in Arlington ,Virginia and had found employment at the National Bank of Washington and Trailways. They were fortunate to get an apartment together on Lee Highway west of the Potomac River. Through the week Gloria was off to the Bank and Shirley was off to duel with fuel bills at the Bus Depot

Times were difficult, rent was high easy enough if you saved and saved you got by until the next month. Gloria often remarked about the bus ride to work, always packed and left you standing in the aisle. When it was raining, passengers got on sopping wet and you just managed to get to work before you were also drenched; men never had to worry about their hair.

When Shirley returned home one day, she had news that there was someone they could share the apartment and the rent. They had to make sure that management never saw the third person – frowned on such.

Time went on and they lived happily together. When there was a knock on the door, (Pat) would hide in the closet… It worked. How this happened was never revealed to me; Shirley told Gloria, she had learned that (Pat) had a pistol. Somehow, this came out and (Pat) told the two that she had an ex-male friend that was stalking her. At the moment she was sure he did not know where she lived, but would definitely find her; and obviously this had gone on long enough to warp her personality..became the reason to have a pistol (maybe it was his!).

The ‘secret’ made the two jittery… come home from work and the mystery became: was (Pat) there ? if so she might be in the closet… if she was in the closet did she have the pistol and was it loaded… and their minds raced with all the 911 possibilities. It was tight lips, if management found out, then they all got the boot! The deposit was gone.

Somewhere out of the blue, their third told them she was going to leave, maybe back to Pennsylvania to live with her parents for awhile. There was a ‘thank you LORD! “There’s a stranger at the door – Let Him in; He has been there oft before – Let Him in, ere He is gone, Let Him in the Holy One. Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son… Let Him in.” #616 SACRED SELECTIONS