Swallow Your Pride

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Chapter Four – Shame On You

I sat on the inside looking out. Trying to understand the world around me. A place which once offered solace. The comfort I once received from the world around me is substituted with a drug. Alcohol. Now prescription drugs are what is offered to the detox patients. Robbing them of life. Stripped of what makes them human. No expression. No emotion.

She appears for the second day. Sitting on the concrete stoop outside my window. Her hair matted, clothing sticking to her exhausted body. Trying to escape the corrupt world around her. Knocking at the door, pleading to come in.

She spent the last two nights on the street, looking for a haven. Desperate, I try to warn her. Once she steps foot inside, they will try to steal the little life remaining.

Her hands covering her face, head bowed. Searching. Praying. Her journey is weary, trying to navigate life alone. But she isn’t alone.

The young man circles around her. He would whisper to her, suddenly stepping away and then aggressively berate her. Beating the Spirit out of her. Smothering her.

She tries to earnestly fight back. A fiery, redhead having her flames extinguished. She starts to weep. Tears stinging her face, putting out the fire that remains. Defeated.

Unable to console her, so forced to cry with her. One large tear drips down my face. They are trying to rob me of my compassion, but I have one tear saved. A tear for her.

-Journal Entry, Sunday, March 28, 2021

Drugs, alcohol… need help? https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/national-helpline