had turned much colder. The nights, especially, were harder to get through. Alessa hated being so cold in the winter. The group had already spent a couple of nights in a local church when it rained. During the days, they made do with public restrooms, washing as best they could. Alessa longed for a hot shower, real soap and shampoo, toilet paper, flushing toilets, and clean clothes that weren’t tattered and leaky. These were the necessities she missed most in her state of homelessness.
On Halloween, Lucy begged Alessa and the others to take her trick-or-treating. Her pleading finally made the group of teens cave in.
“But what will I wear for a costume?” Lucy asked.
One boy suggested she could go as a bum. They could put mud on her face to give her an authentic look. Lucy was excited by the idea, though secretly, she would rather have been a princess.
“Besides,” one girl added, “at least we can all share the candy.”
That night, Alessa, Lucy, and one of the older boys headed out to a neighborhood in South Philly. As they went from house to house, families gushed over how cute Lucy was. And the little girl was adorable, with her large blue eyes and curly blond hair so pale it almost verged on white. What didn’t strike the families they visited was that Lucy wasn’t wearing a costume. She was in regular clothes, with a smudge of dirt on her face to give her the urchin look.
Alessa wished it were Halloween every day because people were treating them like normal humans for a change. On other days, they were objects of dismal pity. Their appearance alone advertised their homelessness in unequivocal terms. Alessa had noticed how women would sometimes take their children by the hand and lead them away from her when she was out with Lucy. She concluded that the worst thing about being homeless was the reaction of other people. They all wore the same expression of relief that they weren’t in her shoes.
When they returned from trick-or-treating, all the teens gathered around Lucy as she sorted through her candy. She told them they could have whatever they wanted, and they each took their turn, picking candy and thanking the child for sharing her goodies. All of them loved her and knew how hard being homeless was on her. To some extent, the teens were relieved that she was still too young to understand the hopelessness of their lives.
By mid-November, sleeping outdoors was no longer feasible. None of the group could stand the bitter cold anymore, and this was promising to be an unusually severe winter. They gathered by the fire one night and decided they would all beg on the streets during the following week to earn enough money to buy train tickets to Florida. Alessa agreed to help all she could but had no intention of moving to Florida herself. She had also decided she would keep Lucy with her and was determined to make enough money that would enable her to rent a room during winter. She still had one hundred seventy dollars left over from the money she had earned as a stripper, holding on to it as if it were the most sacred thing in the world. She had spent it sparingly on essentials like tampons and things that Lucy needed. By the end of Thanksgiving week, the teens had begged and stolen enough money to pay for one-way tickets to Florida.
They were upset when Alessa told them she and Lucy were staying back in Philadelphia. They had lived together as a family for so many months, they couldn’t imagine leaving any member behind. Alessa convinced them she and Lucy would find a shelter in the city. The oldest of the boys handed her fifty dollars. It was the cash equivalent of two train tickets that Alessa and Lucy would no longer have any use for. Alessa thanked them all for their support and generosity. Two days later, the group departed, leaving blankets and pillows behind for the two girls to share until they could find a shelter.
Alessa and Lucy spent their first night alone, wrapped in all the blankets left behind, but they were so worn and thin with use, it didn’t seem to make much of a difference. The next morning, Alessa packed the little clothing they had into her duffel bag and told Lucy they would find somewhere else to stay. Not knowing where to go, she headed into the heart of Center City with the child in tow.
