Please hold

I visit twice weekly at the 2100 mens’ shelter … two chairs in a busy hallway across from a small room with a landline. If you have no cellphone, that phone is all there is. There’s usually a line along the hallway … a long wait for a call to go through … to someone, anyone who can help a man get out of the shelter and into a place of his own. It’s a privileged world that does not have such troubles … “Please hold for the next available … ” The man waits … at last, a human voice … and the wheels begin to turn.