Sleep Don't Come Easy Read Online Free PDF

for his true calling finally finding him. He became a regular volunteer, helping out any way he could, from preparing and serving food, to purchasing supplies with his own money to help keep the shelter thriving. It was such a gradual and natural shift in his life, that he seemed to wake up one day and find that the hotel had become a distant memory, replaced by a run-down and tattered old church that had magically become his.
    â€œNelson, now, you need to get away from my stove ’fore you burn something up.” Lois Anderson nudged him with her hip and took the spoon he was stirring in a pot from his hands.
    â€œHow many times do I have to tell you I know how to cook, woman?” he retorted playfully, relinquishing control to the older woman.
    Lois immediately began to toss various seasonings into the simmering chili. “No. You know how to heat up, but you ain’t no cook. That’s my job.”
    â€œI’m just trying to help, Miss Lois.” He softened his tone.
    â€œFine. You can help me by finishing up that budget you trying not to work on so I’ll know what I got to work with the rest of the month. That’s how you can help me.”
    Lois was like everyone’s mother. A sweet, plump, feisty woman with a heart of gold and that tough kind of love that made you just want to do better. She’d been there longer than he had.
    The kitchen was her domain, and off limits to everyone except—
    A lump swelled in his throat just thinking about her. Lois was a valiant woman, but she’d been close to Toni, and even though she masked the sadness in her voice, there was no way she could hide it in her eyes.
    â€œYou miss her,” he said, quietly. “Don’t you?”
    Lois continued seasoning and stirring, almost as if she hadn’t heard him. “I do,” she answered shortly.
    A part of him expected Lois to turn to him, and fall crying into his arms, but then he remembered that Lois would do no such thing. She’d grieve, like all of them, in her own quiet way. Nelson left her to her duties, went back into his office and closed the door behind him.
    He stared out of the window to the brick wall of the building next door, just across the alley. He’d given up his hope of ever actually having a “view” a long time ago. Through the years, Nelson had memorized every line, every brick of that building wall, and learned to meditate on it.
    Toni had been so much like him. She lived and worked in a world that could never live up to her passion. And she’d been drawn to The Broadway because it filled the same void in her that it filled in him.
    â€œThe Broadway can break your heart,” she told him late one night.
    The two of them lay naked on the floor of her apartment. Nelson held her in his arms, and buried his nose in her hair.
    â€œBut I’m needed there,” she continued quietly. “I’m doing something good there.”
    No one knew they were seeing each other. They were private people, and what mattered most to both of them were the people who came through The Broadway who needed their help.
    â€œI love you,” he confessed that night.
    Toni stared back at him, and softly pressed her palm to his cheek. She smiled. “Good,” was all she said.
    Nelson blinked and a tear fell down his cheek. Life was a balance of the good and the bad. Angels were all around, but then, so were devils. The police had questioned him and his staff several times about the night she died.
    Had she worked at the shelter that night?
    Yes, but she left early.
    Do you know where she went after she left the shelter?
    Home. He assumed.
    What time did you leave, Mr. Monroe?
    His usual time around nine.
    And where did you go after you left?
    Stopped at the store for milk (he still had the receipt if they needed to see it) and then back to his apartment , where he spoke briefly with a neighbor in the elevator on the way up. And yes. He spent the