Rumi's boarding house for the needy and the lost.

The phone rang on the nightstand next to the floral lamp. Lindy sat up and turned on the lamp next to her bed, her husband moaning in his sleep. She rubbed her eye as she picked up the phone, "Kirtz residence," she sighed sleepily into the phone as a sob came from the receiver. "Lindy, Lindy. Please come pick me up. I-I am downtown on the corner of Vine and First. Please, hurry." her brother sobbed and she sat rigid. "Elizah, are you okay?" she asked and she heard what sounded like pants. "Just get here, please." A beep came and she was left staring at her phone.

"Huney, I have to go pick Eli up. I'll be back soon." she said as she pulled on pants. She threw on a jacket and slipped on her flip-flops as she gripped her keys. "Is everything okay?" her husband asked as he sat up. "Ye-yeah, just. Wake the kids up at six." she said as she looked at the time. 5:30. Yeah she wouldn't be here to send them off to school. "Love you!" he called as she ran out of the house and into a storm. Rain hit her hard as she hauled off to her car. She turned it on quickly and listened to the engine sputter before running smoothly. She drove out of the drive and began her twenty minute drive into downtown.

She hit the radio dial so that the Kenny Chesney song shut off when she saw her brother sitting inside of a phone booth. She stopped her car and looked at him. He only had a jacket and pants, his shirt missing. She honked her horn, too frightened to get out of the car in this bad neighbourhood. He stood up and ran to her car, tears and rain mingling on his face. "Please, drive." he sobbed as Lindy nodded. She started to head out of the 'hood' and her brother calmed his sobs. "We can't keep doing this." Lindy said.

"I'm trying." he cried and she looked at her brother. "Elizah, you can't keep staying at my place. The kids, they are worried. I'm worried, please. For me, get help." she pleaded as she flickered her eyes at him and then the road. Elizah looked down as he noticed that Lindy wasn't taking him back to her house. "I'm taking you to a friend's. She'll look after you and she'll help you get over this." Lindy said and Elizah looked at her as if he had been betrayed. "Lindy, no. I promise," he began, but she gripped the wheel and interrupted with, "And you did last time too. All you do is promise to stop and then you don't!" she cried as tears welled up in her eyes.

"I can smell the liquor on you." she said as she looked at her brother. He was hickey ridden with bite marks and God knows what that dried stuff was on his lower stomach! "She has helped others like you. She can and she owes me." Lindy said as Elizah shrank in his seat. "I'm sixteen, I should be able to do as I want!" he cried and she looked at him evilly for a second. "What would Mother say?" she chokes out and he bows his head. "I-I know. But I just." Elizah began crying again. "The man said he thought he loved me. He said that if I let him, he'd make me feel lik-like a prince." Elizah said as he attempted to wipe the tears away. "I-I thought that maybe I cou-could lo-love him and be lo-loved again." Elizah sobbed as Lindy sat a hand on his.

"I'm so sorry." she said, but Elizah only bawled harder. "He made me strip an-and ripped my shirt to shreds. He bought me beer an-and we-we..." Elizah's voice was drowned out by even more sobs. "He-he woke up and forced me o-out. H-he threw money at m-me an-and called me a-a whore! An-and I know he's right!" Elizah cried as he shook his blonde hair as if that would shake the memories away. "But you aren't." Lindy said, her cheeks blazing with hate for the man who had done those things. "B-but I am. I-I've been sneaking out and going downtown to-to the corner and I-I've been selling myself." Elizah confessed even though Lindy already knew. Her husband, Sam, had caught Elizah in the act two days ago.

"H-how do you think i bought the kids those toys?" he asked as if she didn't know. He had never told her and up to this point, he had thought her unknowing. "I know, Dear. And I'm taking you somewhere where I know you'll get help." she replied as she took a right and took the car into a different part of the neighbourhood. It was still bad, but not as bad. "Where are we going?" he asked as he zipped up his jacket. "I'm taking you to my friend, Rumi. She owns a boarding house for the needy and lost as she says and I've seen her work miracles. She can help you if you ask nicely." Lindy replied as she pulled up in front of a large house.

It had a white picket fence going around it and the neighbor's house was right next to it. It had a small yard in the front and the house looked down at them with five windows at the top and a large one on the right. It had a front porch with a swing and a rocking chair, a lantern was lit and hanging from the top of it on a hook. A woman sat in the rocking chair and as Lindy led Elizah up through the gate, she looked up. She stopped her rocking and went to meet her visitors as the sun began to rise. "Hey, Lindy!" She hollered and Lindy smiled. "Hi, Rumi. How are you?" Lindy replied.

"Oh, just got to send the kids off in a minute. I'm watching Alisa's, or at least was. I got two new tendents over the other three. A pair of twins I suppose. Came from a bad home, one's hooked on drugs and the other is pregnant. How about you?" Rumi replied as she ran a hand through her ginger hair. "The kids are well. Sam's job is going good too, we plan on donating to the soup kitchen." Lindy said and Rumi smiled, "Bless your heart." she said before pointing at Elizah. "Now, missy, who is that?"

Lindy took ahold of Elizah's shoulders and pushed him before her. "This is my little brother. He needs help and I thought you could do me the favor of giving him a good place to rest his head and to see if you could cure him." Lindy said and Rumi looked Elizah up and down. "I s'ppose I have an extra room. If he keeps from the girls and behaves, I should have him fixed up." Rumi replied as Lindy smiled. "Lindy, I don't want to stay here." Elizah said and Rumi frowned. "Your guardian just enlisted you, so suck it up and deal!" Rumi said as she turned and walked back to the porch. "Bring 'im on in and I'll see to it, he gets a room." She said as she waved Lindy along.

"You're kidding about making me stay here, right? he asked Lindy as she shook her head 'no' "You need help and you refused to go see anyone. I'm at my wit's end. I'm sorry, Eli. I really am, but I think she can help." Lindy replied and Elizah stomped past her. She sighed before following him into Rumi's house.