In The Sanctuary of the Dark Side of the Moon
an excerpt

The cold penetrated her skin, her mind and her heart, and she was sure if it was worse than the fear or not. Cassie wondered if her decision about moving to San Francisco. It had sounded so glamorous and exciting and warm. And she had hoped, friendly. But none of these had been the case since she stepped off the bus from Goldhill. She considered getting back on the bus to go home but that thought made her shiver even more.

Cassie pulled her blue fleece coat closer across her body and pulled her hood down, in an attempt to get a little warmer. Suddenly aware she wasn’t alone, Cassie looked up to see a
large woman standing in from of her. The woman’s dark clothing made her blend in with the dark foliage around her. Cassie just looked up her and wasn’t sure if she should say anything or not. She didn’t want to appear rude and say anything to offend the woman who very obviously was a bag lady.

But the woman spoke first…

“You cold?”

Cassie nodded

“You hungry?”

Cassie nodded again.

The woman pointed to a storefront at the edge of the park…. It had dim lights on where the rest of the stores didn’t have any lights on at all, except for one or two blue or green neon lights.

“Go there. They help”.

Then the woman shuffled away. Cassie turned to look again, and while not exactly welcoming, it did beckon to her. She grabbed her two bags and stood up, only to fall down on the bench again. Her legs were so cold; she was finding it hard to feel her feet enough to walk. She stood up again and let her body get it’s bearings and then picked up bag and then the other and slowly made her way to the lighted store.

Cassie stood at the doorway and looked inside. The store look liked a cross between a Baskin Robbins ice cream store and a school cafeteria. It had two florescent lights hanging down from a very high ceiling. Each fixture looked to need 6 light bulbs but only one or two actually worked with gave the large room a very dingy look. The floor was a cement floor painted in a diamond pattern in blue and gray. It looked like it had been a group project as each diamond was a different size, shape and intensity. On one side were
A series of food counters, originally white, but now more grayish, as well as dented and scratched. On the other side of the room were a hodgepodge of tables and chairs in different sizes and colors.

“Either come or go out, but close that god-damn door”. Screamed a voice with a French accent.

Startled, Cassie stepped in and let the door close behind her. She slowly walked over to an empty table, kicked her bags underneath it and sat down timidly on one of the chairs.

A girl walked up to her a hot steaming mug.

“You look like a tea kind of girl, right?”

Cassie nodded as the girl put the mug down in front of her. Cassie wrapped her hands around the warm mug of tea and then carefully brought it up to her lips for a sip. The hot liquid soothed and warmed as it went down her throat. Cassie closed her eyes and said a silent prayer of thanks. When she opened her eyes, the girl was watching her closely.

“Are you hungry too?”

“Yes, thank you. What is this place?”

The girl answered, “its kind of half way house for night people…” Her voice sounded amused. A boy with black hair and thick black eyeliner, yelled from the corner…

“It’s more like a halfway house for us strung out street kids!!” and then laughed at his own inside joke.

“Yeah, that too….” Giggled the girl.

“My name is Gabrielle, the loudmouth over there is Nevan. You’ll get to know the rest of us… that is, if you are staying. Are you?”

“I don’t know”.

Cassie studied the girl who seemed so animated and friendly. She had long black hair in pigtails that hung down above each ear, with both ears heavily pierced. She was dressed all in black, wore black eye make up complete with very long eyelashes, white lipstick and black fingernail polish. Yet, Cassie liked Gabrielle immediately. Then she noticed the blue crystal in the middle of Gabrielle’s forehead. Gabrielle noticed her looking and her own eyes looked upward.

“Isn’t that cool? It’s called a bindi. I can get one for you, if you want one.”

Then Gabrielle danced away to get Cassie’s food.

Cassie looked around the room while she waited for Gabrielle to bring her food. The young man with the French accent was in the back. Various tables had several people at that, most of the young and most them in Gothic dress. One girl sat at small round table
Flipping out tarot cards and appeared to giving readings to an invisible customer. Also in
the back a couple of boys sat leaning back in their chairs with their feet on the table watching a rather ancient looking black and white TV. Not from them was a doorway with a dark green army-type blanket hanging from the top.

Gabrielle arrived with a tray of food and set it down in front of Cassie. It contained a plate of steaming mashed potatoes and a gravy, a few pieces of fried chicken and carrots and peas. In her other hand, she held a small blue teapot and refilled Cassie’s tea mug.
Cassie looked at the food and suddenly realized just how hungry she really was. Gabrielle whipped out another tea mug from the pocket of her apron.

“Do you mind if I sit with you while you eat?” she asked.

“No,” answered Cassie, as she started to stuff piece of chicken in her mouth. Gabrielle handed her a pink cloth napkin and then poured herself a cup of tea. When Cassie looked surprised that it was a cloth napkin and not a paper one, Gabrielle said, reading her mind,

“We’re very big on ecology around here. Why kill a tree if you don’t have to?”

Cassie nodded as she continued eating. In between mouthfuls of food, she started asking questions.

“You said this was a halfway house? Half way for what? How are all of these people? Where does that doorway lead? Who owns and runs this place? Why are here? Where did you come from? Are you from San Francisco?”

“Whoa, girl, slow down,” said Gabrielle as she leaned back in her chair and put her hand out to stop the barrage of questions. “One thing at a time.”

Gabrielle took a sip of her tea, and Cassie watched her expectantly while she continued to eat her meal.

First, of all… I’m from a little town in New Mexico… you probably have never heard of it and I’m trying to forget it. I came to San Francisco about four years ago with some friends… you know, trying to recapture the old hippie culture”

“How…” started Cassie.

“How old am I?” finished Gabrielle, “I’m 24, how old are you?”

“Sixteen”

“Oh, okay… so I’m just a little bit older and was when I arrived. But I bet our reasons are similar.”

“God, I hope not,” whispered Cassie.

“You might be surprised,” said Gabrielle, and then waving her hand towards the others in the room, “Most of us come here from many of the same reasons. We are loners, different, abused, scared, were picked on and harassed, or ignored, abandoned.”

“Okay,” thought Cassie to herself, “My they are.”

Gabrielle continued answering questions.

“The owner of this fine establishment…” Gabrielle waited for a giggle that didn’t come, “Is a woman that we call Lady Francesca. She runs a gothic nightclub called the Dark Side of the Moon. Actually her husband, Adrian Byron, owns it, but it’s Lady Francesca who does all of the work. On the side she helps us poor runaways and street children. We like to call ourselves Night People.”

“Why does she do this?” asked Cassie.

“Because she once was one of us too, and she vowed that one day she would help us when no one helped her.”