Working With Beginnings Draft 1

There's a woman lying on the ground, shaking, and five pedestrians have gathered around her.She tosses and turns relentlessly, while only the street lights spot her sorrow. Her hair is whipping at the feet of strangers, its black wisps coiling around their toes. They are watching her, not releasing their heavy gazes. Each stare weighs her down to fight harder, compose herself. Because although she is dying, she is beyond humiliation, as wet spots bleed through her clothes. One stranger, an middle aged Latino woman knows the young woman's face, she drops her groceries and while her arms shake, tries to find her cell phone, in the mess of a purse she carries, her shaking in sync with the woman's, flailing limbs. Another person, a small boy, starts crying, unsure of what else to do, runs to a small house on the corner, where a woman, his mother most likely, spots him through the screen door and slams it behind her to grasp him and check for bruises or scratches, but then she realizes the person she should check is the other woman rolling in the street. And yet another person, drops to his knees, trying to think of what to do with his ripped, callused, mechanic hands, wiping them on his dirtier jeans. He leans in and attempts to stop her hysterics. Only one person seems Reaction less. Motionless. Her deep brown eyes stare blankly. Frozen. only thinking to breathe.Forgetting about whats happening. Forgetting about the shift at the bar shes already late for. And the last person, has his cell phone out as well, but instead of calling nine one one, he is filming it with his video camera application. Eventually, the woman late for work drags herself away from it. Checking her watch, but instead of cursing at the hour, she just looks from her watch to the scene. The Man with the video camera also leaves. Only the elderly Latino woman stays, waiting for an ambulance. And the Mechanic stays. Hes worried about the woman. Shes dying, and shes young. She reminds him of his daughter, long black hair. He lifts her in his arms. And when the ambulance arrives, he lifts her with the paramedics, onto a bed. The Latino woman, remembers her now. She had seen her many times before actually, It was the waitress from the diner, she so often went to. She secretly wished she had said something, made a effort to know her. The young woman would have appreciated this very much. She was new to the city, starting over, she had no friends and was incredibly lonely. And that day after leaving work, she was especially lonely, going home to her apartment, thinking about putting up an ad for a roommate. She hated roommates, but she was so desperate for someone in her life. She suffered from Leukemia her whole life. It slowly killed her, she slowly fought it. And I believe that this woman just gave up. Stopped fighting, because she wanted something. something to happen, to change. Doctors, later that night will say it finally got her. But what she knows is that she let it get her, and as she died, She knew five people. Had five people in her life, because they all had seen her die. The Latino Woman, the small boy, The mechanic father, the lost bartender, and the man who was filming. She left knowing someone cared.