A Rose From Stars

“Modern problems require modern solutions,” they said. “Nonsense,” she thought as she lit a cigar and headed out onto the balcony. She took a deep breath and smoked the cigar. A puff of air escaped her lips and she sighed in relaxation. Failure after failure had greeted her each night and each night, this was the only place that could comfort her.

          Now from afar, you might think that she was your typical statistic. A young girl in her thirties, single, struggling to keep her life together, and living from paycheck to paycheck. Well...she was that statistic and she knew that too. Even so, she had tried everything to keep herself on her feet. When she graduated from college, her friends and her decided to start a business. It was doing alright at first, but when the store burned down one night, they were forced to close when they realized that they couldn’t afford to start the business again. That was five years ago and since then, they all walked separate paths.

 After that, she tried to start her own business, but the investors were too stuck up and wouldn’t give a woman a chance. She had walked away empty-handed after nights of being humiliated and embarrassed. From there, she decided to go back to school. She got her masters in journalism, graduated, and decided to become a writer. She wrote articles on whatever she could cover and pitched them to editors and companies. But, for each article sent out, she received a dry response of  “we are unable to publish your articles.” At this point, she was short on money and she struggled to make ends meet through different part-time jobs. Those jobs weren’t always easy. She worked at bars, fast-food restaurants, and small gigs she could get herself here and there. Every day, she hauled herself early out of bed to go work, and every night she dragged herself back home to her tiny little apartment.

“It seemed like this hell of a cycle was never going to end,” she thought as she took one last smoke and tossed the cigar over the railing. Giving up was all she could think about as she turned around to return inside. Right before she went inside, she caught a glimpse of a single rosebud facing the bright, starry night sky. She thought nothing of it and went inside, greeted by the putrid smell of stale water that had dripped from her leaking roof a few nights ago. She tossed her clothes off and slipped into bed. “Tomorrow will be a better day,” she hoped. 

But tomorrow wasn’t a better day. Neither was the day after. Or the day after that.  She continued her daily life in the same cycle juggling between her morning fast-food job to running groceries for an elderly lady to finally working at her night bar job. Again and again, she woke herself up early in the morning and went to work, and each night, she dragged herself home tired to the bone, only to stay up late staring at the night sky. But, one particular rough night after she had smoked her cigar and taken a sip of wine did she catch a glimpse of that same rose. This time, she stopped. The rose had opened up slightly and bloomed to the dark night. She smirked. “Why bother trying when you bloom at the wrong time...it’s better to give up when you got everything wrong,” she thought as she, like she had done every night, tossed the cigar over the railing and headed inside where the smell of stale water and a messy bed awaited her. 

The next day, she started her cycle again. Waking up at 6:13 am, she realized that she was running late. Quickly, she got dressed into her tacky, bright red uniform, packed the rest of her clothes she needed for her other jobs, rushed into her black heels, and grabbed a slice of bread for breakfast. She locked her apartment door behind her and started walk-running to the elevator. However, rather than being greeted by a quick-running elevator which in this case was what she really needed, she was instead greeted by a crumpled up piece of paper taped to the wall. “Out of order.” She sighed. “This morning really wasn’t working,” she thought as she took off her heels and ran down the stairs until she reached the parking garage. She hopped inside her car as she checked the time. 6:27 am. “I can still reach work in time,” she thought as she started the car. Grrrr...The car growled as it fell lifeless. She started the car again. Grrrr...The car fell lifeless again.”AHHHH,” she screamed as she picked up her stuff, got out of the car, and ran to the nearest bus station. Just as the bus station was in view, she saw her bus stop. She started to sprint towards the bus. 

“OUCH,” she yelped as she fell to the ground as her ankle twisted from the heels which barely gave any support. As she slowly got up and looked up, she saw her bus in the distance slowly roll away. She sighed. “I guess, I’m not getting there on time,” she thought as she gathered her stuff and slowly walked to sit at the bench next to an elderly man.

“Excuse me,” he said, “I saw you fall over there and I was wondering if you were okay?”

“Oh. Yea. I’m fine. I just tripped over the uneven sidewalk,” she said. 

“Oh. That’s good,” he said and the two of them sat in silence. She pulled out her phone and texted her boss. Will be late. My apologies. Hoping her boss would be somewhat understanding, she leaned back and sighed. 

“Rough morning,” the elderly man asked.

“Yea. More like rough life though,” she said and then paused, “oh. I’m sorry for complaining. Just things haven’t been going great lately.”

“Ah. I see. I’ve been there before. You just have to keep on pulling through,” he said.

“I have though. I feel like I’ve tried everything to pull myself together. It’s just that everything doesn’t seem to work.”

“I know. Life is tricky like that. If you don’t mind me asking, what do you do for a living?”

“Just part-time jobs.”

“Do you like your jobs?”

“Not really…”

“Then, why do you do it?”

“I need money. I need to make ends meet.”

“Ah. I see. I understand. In this world, money seems to be on everybody’s mind. It’s what everyone needs and what everyone wants. But you see, life is really short. You have to enjoy it while you can, especially since you are so young. Keep some of the part-time jobs, but maybe find some time on the side where you can try to make bigger plans for the future,” he said as a silver bus pulled up next to the curb. “My ride's here. I hope you enjoy your day, young lady,” he said as he climbed into the bus.

She was shocked and confused. “I guess, I can’t expect things to change if I don’t actually change things,” she thought as she waited for her bus to arrive and continued her day again.

That night, she returned home and walked to the balcony. She lit a cigar and took out a little bit of wine. She exhaled and a puff of smoke escaped her lips, disappearing into the starry night sky. She turned to go back inside when she caught a glimpse of the same rose again. This time, it bloomed towards the lovely, bright sky. She smiled. “I guess, I’ll try this time,” she thought as she returned back inside. However, instead of sleeping, she looked up open job spaces for writers. She found a number and called. “Hello, My name is Rose…”