It was late at night and sitting in the waiting area of a hospital was a woman named Blanche; a twenty-two year old young woman with flowing dark as night hair and big round hazel eyes, gorgeous eyes that were red and swollen from all the crying she had been doing.

She was all alone in the waiting area and just sat there with her head low crying waterfalls of tears, her mother was ill and was lying on what looked like her death bed. She had a chronic heart disease that shrunk the heart in size making it difficult for it to pump blood to the rest of the body and so she desperately needed a heart transplant or else she was going to die.

Just then someone came and sat down next to her, a nurse, her name was Linda.

“Hey,” she said. “How are you holding up?”

“Not good,” Blanche answered. “I’m not holding up good at all.” She lifted her head and turned to her. “I don’t know what to do Linda. Mom needs that money for a heart transplant and I have no means of getting it. I have managed to save something but it is nowhere near enough. It's almost nothing compared to what I need. $150,000 where on earth am I going to get that much money? I’m a waitress in a restaurant who gets paid $80 a day, how on earth am I going to be able to raise $150,000? I can’t raise that kind of money and even if I do it would be too late, my mother would’ve died already.”

“No Blanche don’t speak like that,” she said moving a little closer to her.

“It’s true.”

“Still such words should never leave your mouth, ever. She is . . . Your mother’s heart is deteriorating but we must never lose hope."

“But what is hope going to do Linda? Hope is not going to pay for her transplant," Blanche said.

“No it won’t but it will give you the drive to.”

“Drive towards absolutely nothing, it's pointless."

“Blanche.”

“There is no hope, there is nothing,” Blanche said and broke down again; still dressed in her uniform from the restaurant having come straight from there.

“Blanche you are being way too hard on yourself.”

“And for good reason Linda, that is my mother in there, it is my responsibility to take care of her and I am not doing that."

“You are doing everything you can,” Linda said.

“Well it is not good enough so it is as good as not doing anything at all,” she said and threw her head back down as they just sat to themselves for a moment. “She is all I have . . . If I lose her then I’ll be all alone. Having her in my life is all I've ever known, how am I ever going to carry on without her? We should have fallen apart when father left us for his other family but we survived and managed to make a decent life for ourselves. I was so angry because of what I thought he took with him but when I began to focus on what had remained and what came out of it . . . I was the happiest I had ever been. She was everything to me. How she loved me, how she took care of me and how she taught me, her heart was in it always and I felt the love every single day. Our life was incomplete but it was the most perfect it had ever been and we loved every minute of it. And then she got sick and everything changed. She tried to keep up appearances but it took so much out of her and when she couldn’t pretend anymore, she just fell. She had told me nothing, even though I asked her what was wrong so many times all she’d say was that she was just tired and she'd carry on. She was in so much pain but tried to be strong for me because that’s what mother’s do; they carry so much so that we don’t have to but it was too much for her and she just fell. Watching her hit the ground my whole world came crumbling down. How could this be happening to this super woman? It didn’t even make sense. She was always supposed to be o.k. and she was always supposed to be there, goodness they do their job so well we forget that they’re human just like the rest of us. Linda mom was always there for me, whenever and however I needed her . . . I have to be there for her now. She needs me to be there for her now more than I ever have but I can’t, it’s the one thing she needed in return from me and I have failed to give it to her.”

“No Blanche you have not failed, she is still alive. She is still holding on because she believes that you will find a way to save her.”

“It’s $150,000 Linda, even you know I can’t raise that much money so where does that leave me? Where does that leave her?”

“Something will work out,” Linda said.

“How? Work out from where? There’s nothing here . . . I am doing everything I can do and it is still not enough. It is nowhere near enough. I work all the shifts at the restaurant and it is still not enough. I am so exhausted, I’ve been working like an animal for three weeks straight and all it has gotten me is $2,500 when I am going to make $150, 000? And you’ve seen mom’s condition, her heart is deteriorating more every day, the medicine she’s being given now is not going to keep her hanging on for long because it’s not what she needs, what she needs is a heart transplant and I don’t have the money for that. And it just makes me feel so bad and worthless and pathetic, she’s counting on me to help her and I can do nothing. And if she dies I would have failed. How am I going to carry on after that? Knowing that the one time my mother needed me to come through for her I failed. I will never be able to forgive myself,” Blanche said and broke down some more as Linda moved even closer to her and hugged her; tearing up. It was hard on Blanche’s mother but it was the hardest on her because she knew exactly what needed to be done to help her mother but because of the life she lived she couldn’t. $150,000 was an amount to her that with her job was impossible to raise and she had absolutely no idea where she was going to get it.

An hour and a half later, a bus pulled up at a bus stop and Blanche dropped off. She walked down the block to her apartment building and then up the stairs to her apartment, a three roomed apartment that had a small kitchen, a bedroom and bathroom she found with the door open.

“What?” she said to herself and ran into her apartment to find it completely turned upside down. In the kitchen the cupboards, drawers and the fridge were open and in the bedroom her blankets were on the floor and the mattress had been flipped over. “No no no oh my gosh no,” she then said immediately bursting into tears as she dropped her hand bag to the floor and ran to check for something under the bed.

There was a small wooden box the size of a shoe box and quickly she reached for it and pulled it out; wanting to open it and at the same time not wanting to for fear of what was inside not being inside.

Blanche opened it and seeing it completely empty her heart shattered into a million little pieces, a million little pieces that then shattered into another million little pieces. She screamed and broke down like someone that had just been given the worst possible news they could have ever been given; that was where she was keeping the money she had so far saved for her mother’s heart transplant. She had been slaving herself to raise that money and just like that it was gone, Blanche was destroyed. “No! No!!”

Just then lightning flashed and thunder rumbled and it started raining and completely defeated Blanche just slept on the floor and cried on.

An hour later, Blanche showed up at her best friend’s apartment on the upper side of town. And seeing her in the state that she was in, her heart melted.

“Goodness Blanche, what are you doing out on a night like this? Have you lost your senses? Come in,” she said. Her name was Beth and she helped her in and closed and secured the door behind her. Blanche was completely drenched; from the hood of her coat all the way to the socks in her boots. “Blanche, what are you doing?” she then asked and out of nowhere Blanche hugged her, with Beth reacting no other way but hugging her back. “Oh my goodness love . . . What’s wrong? Honey, what’s wrong?”

A moment later Blanche was cozied up on a sofa changed into warm clothes and with a wholly blanket around her; with her eyes on the flame of the candle that was burning on the table and her mind miles away.

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on now?” Beth asked and Blanche came to. “Love, what’s going on? What happened?”

“I got robbed,” Blanche responded.

“What?”

“I got home and my apartment had been broken into."

“Oh my goodness,” Beth said and Blanche started tearing up again. “Are you kidding me?”

“No. I got there and the door was open and when I walked in the place was a total mess. Goodness can I please just catch a break? Even if it’s half a break I’ll take it because this is just too much. I have no idea how much more of this I can take."

“No love please don’t cry." She got up from where she was seated and went to sit down next to her.

"One break. Can I please just get one freaking break?"

"Honey I'm so sorry," Beth said.

"They took the money Beth, they took it all."

“What are you talking about? Which money?"

“You know I have been saving for mother’s operation right?” Blanche asked.

“Yes. For the heart transplant."

“Well everything I had saved was in the apartment."

“No," Beth said.

“Yes." She went on tearing up. “I kept it in a box under the bed and every after a day’s work I would put money into it.”

“Oh no.”

“I have been eating just one meal a day just so I could have more money in there for her and now it’s gone," Blanche said.

“Oh no love I am so sorry.”

“I can’t do this anymore. I keep hitting one brick wall after another and I do not have it in me to keep fighting. That was my last hope Beth, my last hope at actually helping my mother and now this, it’s over, it’s done."

“Blanche I am so sorry," Beth said and hugged her. “How much had you saved?”

"$2,500. It wasn't much but it was my little hope of getting my mother better and now it's gone."

“Blanche.”

"I sacrificed so much to raise that money, so much and to have it all reduced to absolutely nothing in mere seconds is so . . .” She broke down. “I am so tired, I’m stressed and I desperately just need something to work out, anything or else I am going to lose my mind. She’s dying Beth, my mother is dying and if I don’t get the money she needs for the transplant she’s going to die. I need that money to save her life or I am going to lose her," Blanche said.

“I guess this means you didn’t go through with the idea I gave you.”

“No,” she responded shaking her head. “I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I’m sorry but that is not who I am. ”

“But you're desperate for the money Blanche."

“Yes but I will not lose myself just to get it. Sleeping with men for money, how would you even run something like that by me?”

“Because you need the money,” Beth said.

“Yes but sleeping with men, you know that is not who I am.”

“Yes I do but when it comes to desperate times desperate measures are called for.”

“Yes but sleeping with men for money is so not me. I can't do that," Blanche said.

"Just don’t take it too seriously.”

“How can you say that? Sleeping with someone is already a serious thing, doing so for money is way serious."

"You said you would do anything to help her," Beth said.

"Yes but not sleeping with men for money Beth, that is not the kind of person I am."

"It's not sleeping with men, it's just one. Mr. Lyon is very rich and would pay for your mother's operation easy."

"Yes but at what cost?" Blanche asked.

"Goodness Blanche it's just one night. And besides it's not like your a virgin and have been saving yourself for when you get married. You've already learnt how to ride the bike so just ride it again."

"Yes and have someone give me money after I do like some ride at the carnival, no."

"Blanche your mother is fighting for her life, she needs to have that operation done," Beth said.

"I know that."

"So get her the money she needs to have it done."

"Not like that," Blanche said.

"This is the only way. It's either you do this or your mother dies."

"Don't say that."

"Well it's the truth. This is the only means you have of getting that money so if you don't do it then your mother is going to die," Beth said and Blanche gave herself a moment.

"Just one night right?"

"Just one night and you will have the money."

"O.k."