The first-page preview of my new book. A young woman getting clean from drugs during a pandemic has some struggles. How will she get through? Will she succeed? Is a higher power the answer?
Slamming the newspaper back into the trash she had taken it from, Stella shook with frustration. Around her people were social distancing, and masks were hiding smiles. “If anyone is smiling,” Stella thought. No one was hiring, and the mall she walked through was like a ghost town as merchants were locking up without knowing when they would open again.
She needed a job. The company she worked for had shut down. “The governor says we’re not essential, Stella, and he’s closing the doors because of the pandemic. I’m sorry. Maybe you can get unemployment.” The company owner, who had given Stella her first chance after she got out of rehab, had a face full of tears.
There was lots of talk about big unemployment checks, but not for Stella. She didn’t meet the minimum to qualify. The waitressing job she had picked up after the shutdown was also ending. “It’s strange,” Stella thought, “to be sorry to lose a job that barely paid enough to show up for.”
With 43 dollars and rent due in six days, Stella thought back to her past, to a time when there was nothing she hadn’t done to survive. Buying pills used to be her only goal, and Stella had done whatever was needed to get them. Three months out of that lifestyle, Stella’s mind rebelled at the thought of ever living that way again. Shame had been her constant companion. She let out an expletive as she went through the exit and began the walk to her apartment.
For His Glory 