Fay

My Character Fay, created for a contest

My character: Fay

She was heavy set lady is her 70s. Dark brown hair, fair completion and no makeup. She had been walking and walking around the city. No money to land anywhere. Her feet was killing her. Her clothes were to warm for the weather and she left the rest of her clothes with Linda. How she would love a pair of new shoes she thought. She needed a new pair as she kept a $20 in her shoe just in case the cops though she was a vagrant. Anyways, that is what Linda told her to do. Her memory took her back to when mom got all the kids new shoes for school. A faint smile hit her lips.

Born in the forties, Fay had mostly been a housewife. She loved keeping a home and she raised a wonderful son. She was always a shy girl and didn't do well in school. She found out much later she had dyslexia and trying to learn to read was very hard for her in school. She could get by but she wasn't going to set the world on fire with her lack of education. Damn if she didn't lose her eye glasses at the county when she applied for housing. Someone took them when she was filling out paperwork. Oh well, they probably needed them more than her.

She started to get panicky just thinking about her situation. She was no young chicken. She was so afraid being on the streets. It just happened. Her friend Linda got in trouble with her landlord for having Fay staying over more than a few nights so she left. She would check in with the county, they may have a place soon for her; Senior Housing.

Fay found a cigarette butt; it looked clean. Oh, but she just couldn't. What if she picked up some disease. How many times she tried to quit and now it looks as if she will. It was only one more day before her Social Security check would hit and she could pick up a carton. Bad habit but it keeps her sane. She started to hum; it helped to assure she was okay.

She started to feel hungry. She wasn't too bad off. Last night she was able to get a meal at the Salvation Army, a shower and a bed. They also gave her some food bars; she would have one of those to hold her over. She could stand to lose some pounds.

Fay wasn't always living this way, day to day on the streets. She lost her home, her car and her husband just died two months ago. Damn cancer took everything away from her. She could not afford to stay in their apartment, keep payments up on the car and her husband had been in and out of jobs before the cancer hit so his Social Security wasn't as good as hers and that wasn't saying much. You don't make a lot when working in retail. 503