Her cheeks reach out for hands to pinch their rosy plumpness, with upturned chin she struggles to touch the wide luminescence of solar goodness. The warmth tastes so good, she thinks. Why can’t it be my breakfast everyday?
Two birds compete with her fragile steps across the rickety sidewalk She is in the back of her yard, waiting for a glimpse of regular activity, some sign that she is not lone in this isolated world of broken promises.
She can’t hop on the bus yet. She has only managed to venture out from her doorstep just last year, after 20 years of immobility.
The neighbors don’t use the backyard anymore. No one comes to visit. They can't afford the gas, the car or the public transit system.
The fare is too high. It’s 2037. Carfare is now $ 50 per day for a single ride and still not enough buses or trains to accommodate her oversize wheelchair. The insurance no longer covers wheelchairs unless the recipient can pay a co-pay of $1000.
SSI is now up to $ 850 per month--the state pays $300, her neighbors pay $200. It is a tax to live in a diverse community—they resent her for it), the federal government contributes $200, and she has to work off $150 or forfeit it. She can't work, so she forfeits it.
She could not get her social security retirement—they only allow people who worked in the last 10 years to collect.
Fifty dollars!! Just to go a few blocks. How can I get $50? She screams.
She doesn’t even know what a $50 bill looks like anymore. She lost her job September 1, 2007. She is no longer able to get out of the house except to the back yard.
She tries to compensate by teaching herself to walk. What a long road to get from the wheelchair to a seat on the porch. A few steps in the yard-- the gate still seems an eon away.
If she could only get out into the world where she could be with people, she could regain her sense of self, she thinks—get to the center be among people who don’t despise me.
Night falls, the moon as cold as her neighbor, the sky an indigo brush across crimson clouds reaching out like ghosts, she waits for some sign of freedom….
She Waits, She Waits….