In the city of Philadelphia, there lived a young woman named Maria. Maria is 20 years old and gave birth to her daughter Hailey at the age of 18. When Maria discovered she was pregnant the summer after she graduated high school, her mother disowned her, kicked Maria out of the house, and left Maria to live on her own. She moved in with her boyfriend, Michael, for a while so she could get a job and save money for her own place. When Maria turned 19 years old, she had a 6 month year old baby girl and moved in her new apartment.
Maria couldn’t be any happier. She lived on her own and was working while taking care of her baby girl. But one day, the happiness came to a holt. One weekend, she was on her way taking Hailey to Michael’s house. Michael was Hailey’s father, so the normal routine was to watch her every weekend while Maria worked. On her way to the house, Maria had a bad feeling about something, but couldn’t figure out what it was. As she arrived at the house, she lifted Hailey in her arms and walked inside. To her surprise, she found Michael cheating on her with another woman. She grabbed her things and quickly ran out of the house, hoping to never return there again. Maria was devastated. She thought things couldn’t get any worse.
One night, when Maria and Hailey was sound asleep in their apartment, Maria was awakened by an alarm. Maria thought it was the sound of the alarm clock waking her up in the morning for work, so she slammed her hand on the snooze button and fell back to sleep. About 10 minutes later, Maria awakened by the banging of someone at her door. As she slowly got out of bed, she smelled a sent of burning wood coming from the hallway. When she walked closer to the door, she heard someone yelling her name, telling her to come quick. As Maria open the door, she was greeted by a fog of smoke and a terrified neighbor from across the hall. “Maria! What took you so long? The building’s on fire! Grab Hailey and get out of here now!” she said. Maria couldn’t believe it. She immediately ran into her room and grabbed her sleeping daughter. She turned around, grabbed her phone, her money, a blanket out of the crib, and dashed out into the hallway.
As Maria walked down the hall, she saw nothing but smoke at the stairwell. She took the blanket and covered Hailey’s face, took a deep breath, and ran quickly down the steps. Maria only lived on the second floor so it was a pretty easy escape. When Maria got to the lobby, she saw people from the other side of the building also running to get out. The smoke looked even blacker on that side then her side. She ran outside and across the street where others where standing around looking up at the building. Fire trucks swarmed around the corner and in front of the building. They were yelling for people to move down the block and out dangerous areas. Maria sat on the steps with Hailey wrapped up in the blanket and waited for an answer. They sat and watched the firemen put out the fire. The fire spread and destroyed the entire apartment. Everything Maria had was gone.
The police and ambulance came to tend to people who were hurt and had nowhere to go. The escorted everyone to the Red Cross close by so people could stay there until they found a place to stay. As they arrived, everyone was told to go inside a 2 rooms and settle down for the night. It was hectic. Everyone was bunched together like a pack of animals. When it came time to sleep, they had cotts for everyone. Maria didn’t like this at all. She took Hailey and her things and headed to the front desk. Maria walked up to the receptionist at the front and told her she wanted to leave. She explained to her that no one was to leave until they found somewhere to go. Maria had 3 people in her mind; her mother, her best friend, and her cheating boyfriend. She told the lady she had a place to stay, took her belongings and left. Even if she wasn’t too sure about where to stay that night, she knew she didn’t want to stay at the Red Cross any longer.
Walking out of the Red Cross, Maria picked up her phone and called her mother. She wasn’t sure if her mother was still mad at her from getting pregnant and having a baby about 2 years ago, but it was worth a try. She explained to her mother about everything that happened on that horrible night. “Oh, so you think you can come to me when you have no one else, huh? What about your boyfriend?” she said, “You were so quick so go to his house when you got pregnant. You thought you were grown then. Well, now you are grown, Maria. I don’t have anything to do with you and your troubles. Go run to his house like you did last time.” Click. She spoke her harsh words and hung up the phone with out taking a breath. Maria sat on the cold, cement steps outside the Red Cross and cried her eyes out with Hailey in her arms. Out of all people she thought her mother would be there for her. She had to come up with Plan B. She thought of calling her best friend, Marla, but then she remembered the controlling boyfriend. Maria never liked him. They always used to argue about how he treated Marla. Marla of course would be on his side and Maria would be the losing defendant. Maria called her, but her boyfriend answered the phone and they got into an argument about Maria staying for a while. Marla insisted to her boyfriend to give Maria some money for a motel, but her boyfriend refused. Maria knew she had no hope.
Last but not least, Maria gave in and called her boyfriend. She intended on never speaking to him again but she had no other choice. He told her that he was on his way to pick her up from the Red Cross and to stay there. As she waited on the dark corner with her baby, two older guys came up to Maria trying to get her purse. With Hailey in her hands, Maria pulled and pulled on her purse but didn’t want to risk her life and especially her daughters. She fell to the ground, while the thieves ran off with all she had. When Michael pulled up in the car, Maria ran to the car hysterical. She told Michael what happened and he was furious. He wanted to go look for the guys who attacked her but Maria insisted not to. She had already gone through enough for the night and she just wanted to sleep. When they arrived home, Maria put Hailey to bed and fell asleep next to her without a word.
The next morning, Michael gave Maria money to go get things she wanted from the store. While Maria was standing in line, she found a lottery ticket at her feet. She picked it up wondering who it belonged to but it was no one in sight. As she was walking back to the house, Maria took a penny and scratched off the plays. To her surprise, the ticket read, “$1,000,000 WINNER!” Maria stopped in her tracks. She couldn’t believe after all that happened she won 1,000,000 dollars. She quickly ran home to tell Michael. As she explained to him what happened, he couldn’t believe his ears. He was happy that everything was finally turning around for her.
Later on that day, Michael took Maria to cash her prize. He insisted Maria not give him any money for the help he gave her, but Maria couldn’t refuse. After all, he was Hailey’s father and he has done so much for them unlike everyone else. Maria and Michael never got back together, but they remained good friends. He helped her get a new apartment and stayed by her side. Maria helped her best friend Marla get out of her controlling relationship, and never spoke to her mother again. From then on, Maria’s life was the best she ever asked for.
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