another world

I had an appointment yesterday.
I got on the bus, transferred to the next one then walked a few blocks in the rain to a church office where I would meet my companion.
I walked through the door and knew instantly that I had walked into another world.
A friendly voice said hello can I help you and do you want something while you wait... you can sit there if you like.
The chair was soft and made of the same upholstery material as the couch that sat next to it at right angles. They were a matched set. In the corner was a table that fit correctly in the space and held up a lamp and some magazines that were current.
The rug was clean and without stains. There was trim at the edges of the room where the walls met the floor and all the walls were painted the same color. The ceiling was, well just a ceiling with tiles all alike in neat rows and not one of them looked as if it had any chance of falling down.
Outside the window I could see parents walking to their shiny cars with their children newly released from school. A woman walked by me with a young teen and I noted that they were talking in softly modulated indoor voices to one another. They nodded pleasantly as they passed by and the woman said hello to me as she headed for the door and they both went out. 
It was another world.
When I had arrived at work in the morning of that same day, long before I left for my appointment, I noted that there was fresh graffiti on the side of the building and I tried to make a mental note to let the maintenance person know. I flipped the switch and was grateful that at least one of the lights was still working in the part of the hall that shines on the steps that lead up to my office. The rug was newly vacuumed and for that I was grateful and I barely noticed that the thin spots where the foot traffic is heaviest are nearly down to the under flooring which is not real wood but only tiles from a long past era when tiles that looked like wood were popular.
A man came through the door I had unlocked just before I had gone into my office and he asked if he might have a bus ticket so he could make it to his parole officer on time and I said yes. Before I reached my desk there were two more people and they too had need of transportation and I asked are you an honored citizen or do you need a regular ticket? They took the tickets and went back out the door to the hallway as I took off my hat and hung my cape on the hook of an ancient coat rack before going to sit at my desk.
Out the window I could see there were several people waiting for the doors to the hall to open so they could get in to use bathrooms and other luxuries like that which are not readily available to those who live outdoors. I noted the time and went to unlock the back door which has access to a bathroom that people can use in the event that they need a bathroom in the morning before social services or the church hall are open at ten. It is often hard to get the back door to stay unlocked because it is old and the lock has been latched and unlatched perhaps a million times since the building was built over a hundred years ago.
The paint in the bathroom is wearing off around the places where people frequently touch the wall when coming in and out of the room and turning on the water or taking a paper towel or tissue from the holder but I didn't really see that. I can't remember the color that the tile was before it got so old that I just think of it as the floor and maybe it is brown or tan but I remember that there was toilet paper on the roll and the water wasn't dripping so the bathroom was ready for use.
Someone asks if there will be showers today or is it tomorrow and another asks when they can check their mail or will the volunteer that does that be in today? I get to my office just in time to take a call and discover that the office volunteer for the day is ill and that means no one will be around to answer the phone or check people's mail when I am too busy and I know that I have several appointments and at least one of them will take me away from the building.
From the weekend the mail has stacked up but luckily it is not the first of the month when everyone is anxious to get the checks that help them get through the month so it only takes thirty minutes to stamp and sort by name so that when people come and ask I can hand over the envelopes that are theirs. So often people come and ask but nothing has come for them so I joke at least you didn't get any bills but I think that some of them would be happy just to have a letter with their name on it.
The time raced by so quickly I almost didn't remember to go and catch the bus to my appointment.
On the way to the bus I see a man take a drink from a can that he places in his pocket and I have to go and ask if he wants to show me what he is drinking or does he just want to leave. And so he leaves and I start to jog to catch my bus while behind me I hear voices raised in anger but I don't have any time to spare so I text security just before I climb the steps into the bus.
I wondered at the end when my appointment time was over, as I left the space where I waited for my companion, a place where everyone seemed to have what they needed and know where they were going if anyone at all knew how close the other world was?