Meredith sat quietly near the entrance to a shopping centre on a busy pedestrian street in the heart of Dublin. Most shoppers wouldn’t even notice that she was there. Occasionally, one would stop and hand her some change. Rarely, would a word be said between them. Not that she wanted to talk. Her worst fear was that someone, even a remote acquaintance might vaguely recognize her from her old life. The shame of being seen living like this. Her once beautiful jet black hair was now frazzled and dirty, her jumper and jeans, old and ripped. Once her life had seemed so full of potential, she had never envisioned that she would end up living like this, especially at twenty-five years of age. That is what brought her all this way from county of Cork.
This was her favorite spot during the day. An excellent view and a small bit of shelter. Later, she would find somewhere more secluded for the night perhaps in the doorway of an apartment block or in an abandoned building. Somewhere relatively safe, compared to the homeless shelters where she would be hassled for sex and face the temptation of drugs. She was clean over two months now and that was something she was quietly proud of. But the pull of heroin was never far from her thoughts.
It was a warm summers day, which Meredith preferred to the cold but it brought its own problems. The scorching heat of the ground and the intense glare of the sun. The smell of burgers from the McDonald’s restaurant down the street tormented her. It would be a few hours till the soup kitchen opened, she would just have to wait.
She spent a few minutes just watching the various people go op and down the street. They all seemed happy or at least content in their lives. There was a group of girls giggling, two men holding hands in a romantic embrace and a a group of african men among the milieu. Then she spotted a man in a wheelchair buzzing past on the opposite side of the street. She had seen him several times over the last few weeks. He was around her age, always immaculately dressed in a suit. and always in an apparent rush to his destination.
She thought of asking him where he was in a rush to but he wouldn’t want someone like her talking to him. The smell alone would make him run a mile, if he could run that is. Oh, how she would love to have someone in her life, even just for a chat but who would want her?
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