In the {News}Paper

Scorpio (Oct. 24-Nov. 21)

                Someone will save you when you’re right in the middle of a perilous task.

I look at the numbers printed in ink on our bill receipts, counting how much debt we are in for this month. Between starting a business that’s growing slowly and providing for my family and my husband’s drinking problem, it would be a miracle to be in the black. I quickly calculate over and over again, maybe a hundred times before I am sure of the total we have to survive- a meager 178.46 for a month.

As I sit at the family table decorated with stains and remains of past meals, I wonder how we are to survive. I can’t keep doing this, raising a family with no support, and adding a new business that is like a newborn baby. Glancing at the digital green numbers reading 2:13 AM, I realize that soon the hustle will take hold in as short as four hours. I guess I can file this night away as another sleepless one.

I don’t remember when we started to have financial problems- him and I, we were the perfect couple. High school sweethearts who went to the same college, got a degree, had kids, and settled in the beautiful state of North Carolina. We had big dreams and aspirations, knowing that the future was so far away, you couldn’t tamp us down.

But all good things must come to an end. After coming back from maternity leave, I resumed working at the restaurant I was head chef at, only to find a new one in my place. They assured me that I was still going to work there, I had done so much for the business. As the budget got tight however, they went back on their word. To make matters worse, my husband started to go back to the frat ways of drinking. Pretty soon, he lost his job due to coming into work drop dead drunk and losing clients as a results. With nowhere to turn, I invested my life savings into my new business, an Irish restaurant and bakery.

Suddenly, I hear a tap on the door. A visitor this late? Quickly I glance from my vantage point at the kitchen table and see no one. I quietly get up and open the door, careful to not wake up the family. I see tucked inside our mailbox a white envelope. Picking it up, I see nothing on it. Opening it up, something falls out. I pick it up and realize that this is the miracle I’ve been waiting for. Money. Someone has saved me in the perilous task of raising my family.