It was a cold and rainy night and people were rushing about to get to their trains.  Umbrella’s were dripping all over the floor.  Emma sat there and watched as the train stopped and people got off and others rushed to get on.  She tried to muster up the courage to ask someone for money, but who would she ask?  

Emma had lost her job and did everything she could to try to make money.  She waited tables but she wasn’t fast enough so she was fired.  She tried to work as an animal attendant at the local veterinarians office but she was allergic and couldn’t stop sneezing.  The doctors were not pleased.  She scoured the papers but there was nothing she was qualified to do.

After many months of searching and trying to work anywhere that would take her she finally got a job but the money was far less than she used to making.  Emma found herself selling everything she owned in order to pay her bills.  Soon she ran out of things to sell.  One day she came home and found her cable had been shut off, a week later it was her phone and electricity.  Yet, she still worked hard to pay what she could.  She bought only the essentials and lived off of foods that did not need to be heated up or refrigerated as she had no way to do that.  

One day there came a knock on her door.  It was the landlord.  He had come to complain that she was a few weeks behind in the rent.  She didn’t know what to tell him.  She tried to explain her situation but he was less then sympathetic.  ”You have two weeks to pay me what you owe or you’re out of here” He barked at her.  She closed the door, then sat of the floor and cried.  Looking up at the ceiling she said “Why me, what have I done to deserve this?”

A week later she walked into her bosses office and using all the courage she had she asked for more hours.  That’s when he hit her with “The company is not doing very well and I am afraid we are going to have to let a few people go.  Since you have been here the shortest amount of time I am sorry but you are one of the people we must let go”.  She was so in shock she could not speak.  She handed him her name plate and walked out of the office.  He had given her the last check she was to receive and she quickly rushed to the bank to cash it, fearing it would not be any good if she waited.  When she got home all she could do was sit on the floor and stare at the ceiling.