Changes - Stay with me

Paul

She is beautiful.

I'm walking through the train station on my way back home.
It was a hard day with a lot of damaged people, but that's my job.
Healing damaged souls.
I smile at her and notice how clean she looks. How did she end up on the street?
I grab my wallet and take out some dollars to give them to her.
„I'll give them to you, if you tell me why you're sitting right here?", I ask her, because somehow I'm really interested in her answer. She looks at me, not knowing if she should really tell a stranger whatever reasons she has.
She sighs and answers shortly.
„Addiction."
And I know exactly, what she wants to say with that.
I know a lot of people ending up like her because of addiction but she looks so young and healthy, I just can't understand it.
Maybe I just don't want to.
I walk back home, to look for my mother, hoping she didn't do anything dumb.

I open my door.
It smells strange.
I throw my jacket with my keys on the floor, try getting out of my shoes, but can't get out of the second so I run into the kitchen with one shoe still on.
It smells a little burnt.
Shit, it's burning inside my oven!
I grab the fire extinguisher that I installed for moments like this.
Maybe we'll have to use the micro wave for dinner.
Sighing I get up from the floor to search for my mother.
I should find somebody who could look for her all day, because I can't.
I'm not at home most of the time and I don't have family so she's alone most of the time.
And although she always tells me she's okay and she's getting along without me, I know, she's not. She needs somebody taking care of her because since her accident she isn't the same person.
And I know how hard it is for her to know she's stress for me.
I wish I had the time to look after her, I wish I wouldn't be stressed because of her, but in the end I have to work to earn money for us two, like she once did. And I know, right now I'm in the situation she was in when I was a child.
I sigh.
She's lying on the couch, sleeping. I turn off the TV and sit down next to her, checking if she really is sleeping.
I should go to make dinner.