Vina shivered beneath her blanket. The cardboard beneath her provided very little insulation against the winter weather of Seattle. She groaned and rolled over as the noise of the street beside her constantly disturbed her sleep. Vina struggled to motivate herself to get up. The weekends were by far the worst. At least at school she could get warm for a while. The alarm on her watch went off and she forced herself upright. She knew police and pedestrians would not allow the homeless to make a home for long.

She pulled out a hand mirror from her backpack and did the best she could to brush out the tangles in her jaw length black hair. She looked at herself in an assessing manner. Having been an orphan since birth, she didn’t know her parents. She did know she was a mixture of two different ethnicities however. By the way her nose looked and the slight tan of her skin, she guessed Filipino. From her 5 foot 7 inch frame and her bright green eyes, she suspected something like Irish, Scottish, or English.

She robotically packed her bedding into her backpack and laid the cardboard that acted as her mattress against a tree in the park. She would return back to get it once she had a hot meal. The nearby homeless shelter served hot food at 7:00am and she didn’t want to miss her opportunity. She hoisted her backpack onto her shoulder and began to walk.

The homeless shelter was about two miles away. A roughly forty minute walk was less than desirable, but transportation was a constant struggle without a consistent source of income. Keeping a constant balance between safety, school, and access to resources oftentimes led to situations such as this. She had made many long walks to get what she needed. Sometimes they were even further.

Vina turned onto Stewart Street, relieved to be nearing the homeless shelter. Her stomach was growling and it felt like it was eating itself. She had not eaten much at all yesterday and was looking forward to this opportunity. She internally groaned a little when she saw the gate had not yet lifted. She leaned against a wall, waiting and hoping to not gain too much attention. Several other people who needed help to get by, such as herself, soon arrived.

The gate was raised moments later and the heavenly smell of eggs and bacon hit her nose. She swiftly queued up close to the front. She saw another man in worn clothing approach. She waved at him and he picked up his step a little more. John had been homeless for as long as she could remember. While they didn’t have much of a friendship, she knew he ate even less often than she did. She gladly pushed him ahead of her. Sometimes there was not enough food for everyone, so she wanted to ensure he got a good meal.

As John got in line ahead of her, her chest started hurting. She struggled to take a breath through the pain, but it faded a moment later. Vina often suffered from pain in her chest, but couldn’t afford to go to a doctor. That was a luxury people like her were not allowed access to. Besides, the pain didn’t last very long and quickly went away. It didn’t seem to be getting any worse, just maybe a little more frequent. It was another problem she didn’t have the resources to fix right now.

She soon received her serving. It was not much, but good enough for a solid meal. She quickly moved to an empty table and started to study as she ate. It was rare that she could find a safe spot to focus on her studies. Her grades were suffering as a result. She was often interrupted by people or distracted by noise, cold, or hunger.

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“Which grade are you in?” a woman’s voice suddenly said over her shoulder.

These were the sort of distractions Vina was trying to avoid, but she was a guest here and would do her best to be cordial. “Hello there. I’m graduating this year. I turn eighteen next month. I’m Vina, what’s your name?”

The lady smiled kindly, “I’m Lisa. It’s nice to meet you. Do you have a plan after you graduate?”

Vina was having more of these discussions lately. After the age of 18, the government help basically stopped. She needed to get a job to provide for herself and hopefully an apartment with a roommate. Both of those goals seemed like a long shot without an established credit rating or support from family. No one would take a chance on her. “I am really trying to get a plan together. I have a couple of places that might hire me for part time work.” said Vina.

Lisa nodded slowly, “I may have another lead for someone your age. Could you come back next week?”

Vina smiled, “Yes. I can. Thank you.” She wasn’t actually too excited. These opportunities often fizzled out. Life had a way of dashing her hopes and creating a world of disappointment, but she promised herself she would explore any chance to get out of poverty.

Lisa took her leave and returned back to helping other people.

Vina returned back to her studies and time quickly went by. Her watch alarm went off again. Time to move on. The shelter didn’t stay open forever. She packed her stuff back up and headed out into the cold. Pacific Place wasn’t too far away and she knew she could get warmed up there for a little while.

She dodged the people on the street as she made her way to the mall. When she arrived she quickly scaled the escalators to the second floor. The outlet mall attracted a lot of people on the weekend and she could go unnoticed fairly easily as long as she remained out of the way. She went to the top floor and found a corner to sit in. She could easily be mistaken as a person waiting for a restaurant to buzz her in.

Lunch time came around, but she had no money for food. She pulled a candy bar from her backpack. It may not be very filling, but it would keep the hunger at bay. She had no idea what she was going to eat for dinner. Probably nothing. That was a problem for the future though. For now, she had to finish her homework and graduate on time.

Her watch beeped again. It was 3:00pm already and she didn’t want to walk back in the dark. In a Washington state winter there was only about eight hours of light in the day. It would be completely dark in an hour. She hesitated, unsure where she should go. Returning to the park would be too cold to study, and most shops closed early in the winter.

She packed her bag as she considered her options, but soon found her attention drawn to a woman not much older than her in the distance. She had clearly been shopping, but was now talking with a man. Her body language showed she was uneasy as she kept trying to back away from him. He was clearly interested in her, but the woman wanted nothing to do with him. Vina packed her bag up quickly and jogged over to the woman. “There you are! I was looking all over for you. Come On!”. Vina grabbed her by the arm and dragged her away.

They got a good distance away before the woman said anything, “Thank you! He would not leave me alone!”

Vina smiled and was about to say something when the pain in her chest ignited once more. She tried to take a breath, but her lungs didn’t seem to work. This one was different. Her eyesight became blurry as the world began to go dark. She stumbled to the floor.

The woman looked at her with concern on her face, “Oh my God! Are you okay?”

Vina was on her knees as she looked up. The pain had begun to fade, “Yes… I think I…” but she stopped when a blue light appeared around her. She looked down and saw a swirling blue pool beneath her knees. Then, she fell into the floor.