A Dark Winter Night

CHAPTER I: The Great Depression

Christianity says that God really loves us that he even died on the cross for us. That's a cliché I already have been hearing since I could really even remember.

I grew up on a devout Catholic Family, we always went to Sunday Mass and never missed a day without praying the rosary together. I lost a father quite early, at the young age of 5, and we were only left with ourselves. A mother and 5 daughters and two sons, including me formed the family I mostly grew up, I was the eldest.

But, since I became independent and had my own family, the topic about God only seldom already was discussed in our family.

I am Edward by the way, Edward Anderson and it was the year 1933 in the midst of the Great Depression that swept the United states starting in the year 1929, like most citizens, I was also greatly affected by this.

I was even quite lucky that I still maintained my employee profile, I was at office late still working very hard on this dark winter night, a cup of coffee by my side and my rusty typewriter that I was typing ferociously, wanting desperately to finish off in order to find refuge in my humble home. I hadn't realized that it was already very late when the clock struck 9:00 P.M, although I wanted to finish the paperwork Ms. Brown, my boss, gave me earlier this past morning, I just hastily got up my swiveling chair and started to pack my things.

I grabbed my old scarf, already rotten with moth bites and worn off, and placed it around my neck at least for protection against the shivering cold. We couldn't anymore afford to buy any coat and scarf, not when we were even struggling to pay the monthly rental payment of our sardine canned apartment. And by sardine canned, I mean about 15 families sharing a three story building with only 9 small rooms.

My uncle also recently moved in with us, he also had no job and no permanent shelter, so out of mercy and pity, we just agreed for him to live with us. He is already very old and moves weakly, so he already spends more than half of the day just sitting, occasionally getting up to drink water and eat meals.

As, I walked down from my desk and into the dark hall of our office, I thought that this was how darkness really felt, being always poor even if no matter how hard you try. The sound of my worn out leather shoes as I stepped only broke the deafening silence, I saw the security guard just a mile away from the exit.

He said to me

"You know, Edward, God would really reward someone as hardworking as you are"

His compliment did not seem to lighten me up a bit, so I only just said obligingly:

"Oh, thanks!"

with a forced grin on my face.

I bade him goodbye and as I approached the glass door and pushed open, to be welcomed only by the freezing cold, my scarf was no match against the blizzard-like snow. I walked past the door, above me, I saw the sign "Luxura inc." just above me.

Anyway, I work as a secretary in a federal government company by the name of "Luxura" . Not a pretty shabby establishment, if you ask me, but a rather good one, still perhaps, I have a family of two daughters and one son. We were all very well off until our debts increased and increased until we could not anymore pay them so we sold almost all of our possessions out of desperation, and since then, life never has been harder.

Our monthly income never suffices to the needs of our family, we were even lucky if all of us went by a day without starving. Only bread and coffee by breakfast, a half cut potato for lunch and bean soup for supper, in which almost were taken from bread lines and soup lines by the street, this kind of diet went almost like forever already, as I walked down the glass panes just outside my office, I never have more realized how thin and scrawny I had become.