I listen to a young woman who also happens to vacuum for me. She tells me what her world entails; I listen and learn. Her world lies far apart from mine, yet not so far apart.
I shall call her helper for identity purposes.
Helper attends Amarillo College and takes the basics. She plans a life in veterinary medicine as a tech because the job pays well. She suffers from several physical conditions, but like many people, she does not take her medicine like she should.
Her mother supports various family members and her education allows this. Her brother, a couple of years older than helper, lives in a schizophrenic world. His intelligence mixed with an illegal lifestyle causes problems for him and his family. A just turned teen rounds out the family. He sees older brother with the fancy car and money and wants that lifestyle and more.
Helper tells me her grandfather led the gangster life before finding Jesus at 40. Now her grandfather pastors a church and reminds helper about the wrong way to live. Helpers dad, who has nine children, looks forward to his release from prison. He thinks about moving up north somewhere.
Helper's closest friend and cousin hustles young females. The cousin recently cut her hair into a mohawk/mullet and combined with the leather jacket she wears, desperately seeks to impress.
Sometimes I doubt the truthfulness of Helper's conversations because what she says about her life exists only in fiction for me.
Why does a teenager tell me about her life? To shock? I seldom comment. What draws her back to my house when she cannot seem to keep a job? I know the $20 I give her is no prize.
Life throws curveballs all the time.
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