Leah pushed the stroller through busy streets. Pushing hair out of her eyes she lit her last cigarette.

“Hey, lady! You shouldn’t be smoking around your baby, you know.”

The passing vehicle showered her with slush, but the words struck like daggers.

“Kids these days, she muttered. No respect. No sense of decency.”

She checked the stroller to make sure none of her belongings had fallen out, covered the baby doll inside and walked on towards the shelter with its promise of food and warmth, safety from the night.

“I got you, baby. Me and you, we’ll keep on surviving.”

jasleen_kaur / Foter.com / CC BY-SA


Velvet Verbosity’s 100 Word Challenge this week is SURVIVING. The above are my 100.

9 responses

  1. Tara R. says:

    So sad, and so real. I wonder about wandering people like Leah, how they got to where they are.

  2. Chloe says:

    A sad but beautifully written piece.

  3. Bee says:

    I love that the baby turns out to be a doll. Well done!

  4. Christine says:

    How poignant. Nicely done, Barbara!

  5. Kir says:

    Oh wow, Barb. This was so good. I know there is always a story somewhere, and this one was so wonderfully written.

    Sad and heartbreaking too.

  6. Gregg says:

    And that doll is probably the poor lady’s only friend, too.

  7. I’m with Tara. Every time I come into contact with the homeless, I wonder how they got there. Where is their family? What happened? The sadness of that supreme aloneness nearly shatters me.

  8. deana says:

    oh, so very sad. When you have less than nothing. What you do have means that much more.

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