A Nightmare to a Blessing

It was cold out. The sun had gone down just an hour ago. People had retired to their homes to sit in front of a fire, and lay in their beds. Some families will be sitting together eating a hot meal, while other`s have finished and are enjoying each others company. Things like this, don`t happen on the streets below the over pass.


Life here is miserable, ask anyone. Some people huddle together for warmth, while others light fires in barrels, and hold their hands over the flames to fight off the frost crisped air. Amelia is among them. At the age of eighteen, Amelia was driven out of her own home and forced to endure the extreme challenges of living on the streets.


Many believe that the homeless have no one to blame but themselves for their living conditions, but this is not the case. Many people do not understand that most of the persons living in these rough situations have illnesses that were not helped when they were in dire need of it. Therefore many of the homeless you see today have relied on the use of drugs to help overcome their struggles.


Amelia was not like most of the street residents, she was perfectly healthy with no overwhelming addiction. She was just a girl, who was abandoned, and no longer wanted. She now sat on a blanket surrounded by others, gathered in groups for warmth. Others like her preferred to be on their own rather than depend on others. Earlier, Amelia had found a lighter on the side walk and a roughly large tinned can, which she now started her own small fire in. Down here in the gutter, as some of these folks called it, Amelia was the youngest, and least experienced, but after ten and a half months, she had learn enough to keep herself alive.


It has only been ten and a half months since Amelia has had a home to call her own. Amelia`s had people come up to her and ask her why she doesn`t go to a shelter, and she answer with a simple, "there isn`t one around here.". What she doesn`t tell people is that her original home is just a few blocks from here, and she wants to stay as close as possibly she can to her old life.


For the first few months, getting food was difficult. Amelia didn`t know the ways of the living on the streets, therefore she didn`t know how she was going to survive. It wasn`t until she met an elderly lady named Margaret, who took Amelia under her wing. Margaret showed Amelia how at the end of the day, local restaurants would throw away left over foods, and if you got there at the right time, the food would still be warm. Margaret would later teach Amelia a simple way to make some quick change. Dumpster diving for empty bottles.


The first time Amelia did this, she was embarrassed. She didn`t want people looking at her weirdly or judge her. Margaret assured her that after a few times of doing this, it would become a natural thing, and you would soon forget what others think, and do what was necessary to survive. Later that day when they took in their finds to the bottle depot they made a total of three dollars and seventeen cents. Margaret told her that it would be enough for them to buy a sandwich and split it. But there were times that they were not so lucky, and went hungry.


On the really cold nights, Amelia and Margaret would huddle together, and try to keep warm. On the nights where they experienced no luck in finding food, or empties, they found time to talk, and share. In the time that Amelia was under the care of Margaret, she would catch Margaret talking to herself and later learned that the old lady suffered from schizophrenia, and used alcohol to maintain it.


It was April twenty ninth 2012, and Amelia was out collecting bottles in hopes of getting a good meal to split with Margaret tonight. It was after eight p.m. and getting dark fast. After a hard day`s work, Amelia was able to earn enough money to buy a ham and cheese sandwich, which she would then split with Margaret. Due to one of her episodes, Amelia insisted that the older lady stay behind, while Amelia did their daily routine. It was a ten minute walk to their rendezvous point, where they built themselves a little cardboard paradise. They had been fortunate enough to find an old refrigerator box, big enough to fit the both of them, neither beginning overly large.


When Amelia turned down the alley where she and Margaret resided, she could hear nothing. She figured the old woman must have fallen asleep, but when she approached their make shifted house, Margaret was gone. Sometimes this happened, and Amelia would have to walk around the block, and would find Margaret talking to herself. But this time was different. Amelia circled the block three times in hope that she had just missed her, but on the fourth round, she began to worry. It wasn`t until she passed an older gentleman, that her heart sunk completely.

"If you`re looking for Margaret, you won`t find her." He said.

"What are you talking about? Where is she?"

"She`s dead. Police came by earlier and took her."

This had been the turning point for Amelia. No one stuck around for long here. They come and go like the wind, and Amelia has learned from her past to rely only on herself.