Girl Power...Can I Sleep on Your Couch?

Country girl lived near Fort Bragg all her life. Actually, her people were in Fayetteville and Hope Mills before Fort Bragg was built which makes her the real Fayettenam. Celebrities like Clay Aiken, Fantasia, Steph Curry, Actress Heather Locklear, Rapper Jay Cole put North Carolina on the world map but Fayettenam has been grinding much longer. Fayettenam had been temping in the Raleigh Synagogue and after she completed her assignment making Microsoft Publisher updates to their Jewish newspaper called the Hamagid, she decided to just take a chance and do it like the Nike motto. She picked up her last paycheck and got on the bus and moved to New York City. After all the overdraft fees, she only had $172 in the bank and no place to stay. Her unpaid internship at the record label began at 9 a.m. the next morning. However, she was determined to overcome her fear of failure and make the big move from the Carolinas to the Big Apple.

It was the year 2003, and the Greyhound station was full of people from all walks of life. Fayettenam was a praying country girl, her motto was “pray and proceed.” She knew nothing about financial planning and preparedness meets opportunity. She received a call on her cell phone on a Friday and was on the bus Sunday night.

The lines at the Greyhound station were extremely long. She had to budget her money because she only had enough money for a night stay in New York City. She knew nothing about borough life. She had never seen an island before. She followed the lights, the fame, and the idea of living in a major city. She lied to her mother and told her that the internship provided housing and weekly pay. However, the label had stopped those incentives a year before she applied. Her only plan was to make friends with someone on the bus in hopes that they would let her sleep on their couch just until she could get on her feet in the Big Apple. This was her plan A and B. No SWOT analysis.

The first seat had a mother breastfeeding a little baby. The next seat had an overweight very loud African lady arguing with the bus driver because her seat would not recline. The next seats had full body tattooed skinhead looking couples with nazi tatoos, nose rings, and army jackets. She decided to keep walking. She scanned each person seated on the bus until she found perhaps another female in hopes that she had room on her couch or even better an extra room in her Manhattan apartment. She had been praying all through baggage claim for God to link her up with the right person.

Hello. My name is Fayettenam. Can I sit with you please? She asked politely. Sure but I would prefer the aisle seat, said the new prospect. Four hours into the trip to New York City had gone by and Fayettenam was not able to spark up a conversation with the aisle seat passenger to see if she could squat on her couch. Everytime Fayettenam would strike up a conversation, the passenger would get a phone call or fall asleep or take an extended bathroom break. And finally, the bus driver announces: “We are stopping for a thirty minute smoke, bathroom, and food break. We are on a tight schedule and if you are not back on the coach, you will be left here in Virginia at your own expense, and your ticket will not be refunded.” Fayettenam knew she only had eight hours to convince this lady passenger to let her sleep on her couch for the duration of her unpaid internship in the big city or until she could land a job. So, she rushed to use the rest station bathroom which had a long line to the ladies’ room. She comes out of the bathroom and searches the entire store for her seatmate but she could not find her. Fayettenam remembered smelling smoke on her seat mate’s jacket. So, she checked the smoking area but she did not see her seatmate outside with the other smokers or anywhere. By this time, she only had five minutes to return to the Greyhound bus or take the risk of being left in Virginia. She got back on the bus and when she returned to her window seat, a new passenger was in the aisle seat. Fayettenam started feeling a little panic attack or anxiety because she realized that her clock was ticking. She began searching cheaprooms.com but everything was sold out with no vacancies or too expensive or too far away from Manhattan. She was in an emotional nightmare but it was too late to turn around. When the bus took a rest break in Maryland, she now had only 4 hours left to find a bed for the night in New York City, a place she had never seen before. Luckily, she had some family that lived in Washington Heights. She called her relatives actually a week prior to the bus trip to give them a heads up that she would be coming just in case the label called her to offer her the unpaid internship. She had been calling and leaving messages all week asking if she could sleep on their couch. She had been calling all week and up until she had reached Maryland but no answer from her relatives. It was about 5 p.m. and Fayettenam was literally screwed. She would have to pay for another one way ticket back home to North Carolina and risk being a country bumpkin with no stamps on her passport and a missed opportunity to actually intern in the Big Apple, the city of dreams. Or, she could keep scanning the passengers to see who was riding the bus from the Maryland station to the Port Authority in New York City. So she took her last bathroom rest stop break and made a decision.

She got back on the bus all teary eyed with her little country chest and tailfeather between her legs. When she returned to her seat, it had been taken by an Asian couple traveling back to Delancy street eating some shark fin soup. Now her comfy window seat was gone and not only did she still not have a place to stay, now she had to find another seat. After walking up and down the aisles twice and offering silent prayers up to God, a seemingly nice brown lady offered her a seat. She had dark skin just like Fayettenam but she was different and repeatedly referred to Fayettenam as “Mami.” “Mami, over here! You can sit in the aisle seat and I will take the window, Mami.” Hurry, the bus has to go. I have to be on the truck in the morning early, said the pretty brown lady with the weird spanish accent.

Are you black or white? Fayettenam asked. She said that she was Dominican. Fayettenam said, “Oh! But you look like me.” She laughed at Fayettenam’s innocent ignorance. They began talking and getting to know each other on the way to the New Jersey turnpike. Fayettenam began to relax. She assumed that she had met a new charismatic angel friend sent from heaven by way of Santo Domingo who had a unique accent and a one or two bedroom apartment or a couch share. Fayettenam had been blessed by God and all of her problems were resolved, she thought to herself as her new Dominican seat mate began a long chat about her job as a new New York City paramedic.

How do you say this in English? She said to herself. Mami, they call me “Adrenaline rush,” at work because I started a couple of months ago as a city paramedic. I have to be on the truck manana at 9am. What does manana mean? Fayettenam asked. “Sorry Mami, it means tomorrow, “ said Adrenaline Rush. Why do they call you Adrenaline Rush, Fayettenam asked.

I work with all men and I have higher credentials than them. They either want to sex me or they are always trying to come for my credentials. And so one day, when I got back to the base, I got a really bad call. Bystanders were on the scene with cameras, helicopters were on the side of the road. The mayor was out there. Then the next call was a 22 year old with boils on his butt, then I had a call with a femur GSW (gunshot wound) from a guy that someone had dumped on the side of the road. I asked the GSW patient, “Sir, what happened?” The GSW patient would not let me touch him so my partner put a little gause on him and did his vitals. When the male paramedics got on scene, the GSW let them touch him and when they did, his leg turned in another direction. Mami, I got in trouble for that. The male supervisor wrote me up. I have to prove to them that I am confident and competent. Ok, GSWs need to be flown out. The male supervisor lied and said that I abandoned a baby and put a bandage on the GSW too tight. It was a tourniquet or little belt and if you put it on too tight, it could cut the blood circulation off, he claimed. But it was not true at all, it was a two by two bandage, just a drop of blood. But with a femur fracture gunshot wound, that is a major bone and you have to get him on a helicopter before he bleeds to death. However, he was sitting there with a smoke in his hand refusing to let me touch him. Then on another call, the men kept coming for my credentials and told me to go to a scene where the person was in cardiac arrest. When me and my partner got to the scene, the mayor and fire department were there standing around. Me and my partner drove up and there was no pulse. My partner started immediately doing chest compressions cause it was 6 minutes and 30 seconds. They had hit her two times with Narcan. No result. The patient was female and outside of the ambulance. I was like, “Get my monitor, stretcher, and suction.” I was telling those men what to do because I am a medic and they cannot do what I do, she said. “I needed to start a line on her,” Adrenaline Rush explained to Fayettenam. I cleared the scene and saved the lady’s life. At the time, they were all on their radios hoping that the newbie rookie female would have the worst patient and kill the patient and get fired. Then, the male supervisor lied and said that I threw my hands up in the air and called the patient a crackhead. Little did they know, the mayor saw everything and came up to me to congratulate me for an outstanding job well done. Now, they all call me, “Adrenaline Rush.” However, I really prayed my way through the whole thing and God answered my prayers and saved her life. It was not only my skills that saved her life. I was God’s hands and feet. The men did not do shit! She said.

Fayettenam was amazed and full of admiration and awe at this example of girl power. And then, the bus driver announced that they were twenty minutes from the NYC Port Authority bus terminal. So she had to think quick and fast on her feet but Adrenaline Rush was so chatty until Fayettenam could not get a word in to ask if she could sleep on her couch at least for the rest of the night. It was about 9 pm and the two ladies had removed their luggage from the bottom of the bus and began up the escalators to Times Square and then Adrenaline Rush asked, “Are you taking a cab or the bus to your hotel?” Fayettenam finally got the chance to respond with the infamous question and explained to her that she did not have money for a hotel and needed a place to stay for the night. Adrenaline Rush (wide eyed) yelled, “So sorry Mami but I am sleeping on a friend’s couch in Far Rockaway Queens New York which is an hour or so from the city.” Adrenaline Rush blew a kiss at mama sita as she rushed up the escalator and vanished into Times Square leaving the country girl Fayettenam teary eyed and standing with her pullman near Duane Reed pharmacy.

Fayettenam was afraid. The city was so beautiful and well lit and full of life but yet so lonely. She walked around for hours, dragging her heavy pullman. West Indian men with strong accents and dreads, and cab drivers were hazing her for attention. Mami, can we take your bags? Taxi! Taxi! Are you going uptown, they asked. The horns were blowing from vehicles zooming by and she finally yelled, “I don’t know.” And then all of a sudden, she begins to pray and sees a $1 internet cafe sign but she was so hungry, she decided to spend two dollars on a dirty dog and a soda which was her first meal in over twelve hours. Fayettenam has no idea, no plan, and less than seven hours to sleep and get ready for her unpaid internship orientation at 9 am. She walks over to the internet cafe and overhears some college students talking about central park and hostels. They told her that they were cramming for an exam before they went back uptown to Columbia University. They gave her bus tokens and she caught a ride to 110th street. She got off the bus, they went to their dorms, and Fayettenam sat on a park bench in the dark outside of Central Park where seemingly every animal in New York City has frequented at some point. She sat for hours it seemed as she kept hearing the weirdest hooting sound. Come to find out, it was a barn owl making the sound. She looked at it and it looked at her for the longest time until they were acquainted. He was really her first NYC friend. The more she watched and observed its survival techniques, the more it learned hers. She learned instantly that this barn owl was a nocturnal creature. It was not too big or too small, kind of a medium-sized bird with pale coloured longer wings and a weird tail. It sat still most of the night as she began to doze on her pullman. And then all of a sudden, the barn owl with its abnormal sense of natural ability and keen hearing, spots a group of subway rats outside of a building and immediately dashes for the prey. It was feeding time. The excitement woke up Fayettenam and she went running to the scene as well and luckily for her, she saw a sign that read, “Hostel forty dollars a night.”