Timberwood: Short Stories Edition - Vol. 40
I didn't realize that the word, " Bussin' " came from this song, until just now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bussin_(song)#:~:text=%22Bussin%22%20is%20a%20song%20by,We%20Have%20a%20Problem%3F%22.
What inspired me to use the word, " Bussin' ", is from this YouTube channel's shorts videos. I read that " Bussin' " meant VERY delicious food.
https://youtube.com/@grubtent
So, with this short story, I will talk about an idea of the Timberwood cult trying to lure homeless & poor people, with good food. This is kind of a little bit intertwined with my experiences with the New Orleans Mission fake homeless shelter cult.
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Timberwood just made an announcement that they will be opening a SMACK BRAND NEW homeless shelter. I, Nola Bordelon, have been homeless on the streets. I hate the streets, the homeless shelters, AND being housed near toxic neighbors from hell! So many back-to-back, life-threatening tornadoes with hail. It's that season again. Maybe I'll give this NEW shelter a try.
I was resident #207 in line, on the women's side. As I was standing in line for the intake, I overheard a couple of loud, obnoxious, ghetto women (standing right behind me - numbers 208 & 209) gossiping & discussing about how brutal Timberwood used to be, back in the 80's & 90's. They were excited & bragging about Timberwood having a new director, named Dr. Pearline Hamilton, since Russell had passed away. The 2 women were talking about how Dr. Hamilton is cleaning house, making a HUGE overhaul of changes. They were saying that it's good that Timberwood now has a 180-degree change of heart in reaching out to the community & helping out the poor & homeless.
We all had to go to the gym area & sit in the bleachers. It felt like middle school all over again. Dr. Hamilton introduced herself, made announcements, & told us what to expect. She even allowed a 15-minute question & answer session. After the assembly, she had us do a meet & greet, to get to know each other, while at the same time, grabbing some catered gourmet drinks & finger food refreshments. The refreshments was lunch for me! Enough to be a whole meal. She encouraged us to take as much as we want & eat up.
I went to sit back down on the bleachers to eat. I had some small BBQ fried chicken wings, some roast beef finger sandwiches, & bite-sized peanut butter oatmeal cookies with a bottled water. That was all they had that I liked, & that was all I wanted.
A guy, named George Henry Rodriguez, (1 of Kristina's other brothers), was eating some nuggets made of a mixture of fried chitterlings & beef tripe that he dipped in Mexican menudo, loaded sweet potato tater tots with bacon, chives & sour cream, & some raspberry cheesecake with an Arnold Palmer. That's stuff I HATE!
George sat right next to me & started a conversation. He said, "Hey! Me & you have the same resident number. I'm also #207! Deeeeeeeewd! (Dude)"
He kept asking me how my food tasted. He wanted to try a piece of everything I had. Strangely, he didn't offer me any of his food. Me being nice, I just gave him samples of my food. I didn't mind sharing. He could've got up & got his own chicken wings, sandwiches & cookies. I didn't want to be rude. I just got up & got me some more.
George said, "Nola? Is that your name?"
I replied, "Yes."
He asked me, "Is it true that Nola means New Orleans, Louisiana?"
I said, "Yes."
He said, "Deeeeeeeewd, I always wanted to go there! Hopefully, we can take a summer vacation sometime."
We were chatting for a while. Then, he started telling me, "You know, Timberwood is such a great organization, helping the homeless, man! They recently had thousands & thousands of dollars donated. They're about to have the homeless in the city living like kings & queens. I feel bad for the people in San Francisco. They need to come over here."
A guy, named Reinato, angrily butted in & said, "Which is stupid, because Timberwood could've BEEN helping people out years ago. Whoever recently donated their money to this fake, scam, fraud organization is REALLY stupid. Timberwood staff are pocketing all that money for themselves, just like any other shelter. Timberwood has NEVER been broke! Don't be fooled! Do your research."
Paloma's cousin, Eric, said, "Yes. He's right. Timberwood is running on demon time. They're THAT desperate for souls. They're a Satanic cult. They acted like they were too good for the poor & homeless about a decade ago, & now all of a sudden, they wanna help people. It's a BIG gimmick. It's too good to be true that they have all this money donated, BRAND NEW hotel quality beds for a brand new shelter, access to all you can eat gourmet food 24/7, the place looks like a castle, & everyone has their own room. & all this for FREE? Yeah, man! Too good to be true. Especially for the homeless. & then, the kitchen is accessable to anyone in the community who's hungry, even if they're not homeless."
The weather was too bad. Too dangerous for me to be out there on the streets. So, I just slept at the new shelter & prayed to not be brainwashed & manipulated. As soon as the weather was back to normal, I JETTED out of there! I had to stay there for 4 nights. The weather was bad all weekend long. Thursday through Sunday.
On that Friday morning (the next morning), Jessica was experimenting in the kitchen. Acting goofy, cooking & laughing. Everyone was looking at her weird, wondering what she was cooking up. She said she didn't know. It looked like a breakfast version of shepherds pie or something.
Teresa & Tracie were laughing & saying, "Now, you know GOOD & WELL that regular homeless shelters don't even cook like that. They give those poor people sloppy scraps. Why doesn't that look like dog scraps."
Jessica laughed some more & said, "Look. These people deserve better. At least, let 'em have a treat for once!"
Jessica took some apple chicken sausage, & started cutting it up & putting it in foil pans. She took the New Orleans holy trinity of seasonings (celery, onion & bell pepper), some salt, paprika, pepper, Slap Ya Mama Cajun seasoning, & some dried parsley, & scrambled it with some eggs & snuck some crawfish up in there. She also sprinkled a mixture of shredded parmesan, mozzarella & colby jack cheeses on top. Then, she went into a big, huge deep freezer & got a pan of frozen grits to put on top. She put some American cheese, shredded, frozen hash browns, & chopped bacon & chopped country ham on top. She garnished it with roasted turnips & green onion. It looked BEAUTIFUL! Jessica REALLY cared for us & was looking out for us. It was Taschika's idea to have some biscuits with a honey butter glaze to go with it. We had some fresh squeezed, cold pressed, natural, organic celery, spinach, lemon, mint, ginger, pomegranate & blood orange juice.
She put her FOOT in that breakfast casserole dish! She put SO MUCH labor of love in that food for us. Some of the homeless people (especially the MEN) were so emotionally touched that they cried tears of joy. They thought the food had more tender love & care than your average Thanksgiving outreach dinner for the homeless. It wasn't even a holiday.
Jessica & a few other volunteers kept making more for people, as needed. She didn't want anyone to go hungry or miss out on anything. A homeless man, named Junior Ray, told Jessica that her cookin' be bussin'. Many of the other homeless men & women advocated for Jessica to have t-shirts made, that said, " Breakfast Be Bussin' ".
The next week, Jessica was sporting a matching gold chef apron & hat, with the Timberwood Jaguars logo in the middle of purple cursive writing, that said, " Breakfast Be Bussin' ". Her hat looked as if she was crowned "Queen of this Castle".
Maybe Dr. Hamilton really did do a complete overhaul & even threw away the cult traits of Timberwood. She actually helped homeless get jobs & get back on their feet. She said, "To hell with Section 8 & HUD! We're creating our OWN low-income housing for elderly, single women with children, & disabled people. We're not gonna wait on them!"
Kristina, Taschika, & the other former cult members, who left, were in total SHOCK at Dr. Hamilton. Dr. Hamilton actually threw the cult portion of Timberwood out the window, & started to run it, truly fulfilling the false promises that the former CEO, Russell, made.
THE END