Dignified

How long can a person keep asking for her basic needs before she loses her dignity?

Imagine a woman. She can look like anyone, live anywhere. Those things don't matter. What matters is that she wakes up every morning to pray in the dark, at a time most would still call night. After she exercises and showers, she prepares breakfast. She wakes her children to eat and irons their clothes for school.

She pushes the iron around holes in the jeans, over stains that have set, and through spots that are missing buttons. New clothes are needed, have been needed for months now. But to get new clothes she'd need to ask her husband for money and that isn't a conversation that she is prepared for. So she prays that he sees the need and supplies on his own, though she knows it won't happen. She lays the clothes and the children's toothbrushes. They dress in shirts that ride up and pants that end high above their scudded shoes.

The End of the Search

Write for at least 400 words about an agreement, a shop, a full moon, and a note.*

A tubby man waits in the shadows. His head is cocked to one side, his body in a stiff pose in contrast to his soft nature. He twists a band with a yellow stone around his third finger. The sound of sharp footsteps echo. The man takes a step out of the darkness and is revealed in the glow of the full moon which cast dark lines underneath the remaining hairs slicked to his shiny pate. The footsteps draw closer until their owner stands in front of the man. His eyes widen and his brows draw down. Before him, a slight black girl in dark green cloak looks up at him.

"This is no place for kids."