"Aren't you cold?" "No." "All you're wearing is a T-shirt. You must be cold." "I'm not." It was early morning. There were no sounds of life except for the occasional car on a distant road. Even the birds slept. A breeze blew a strand of the girl's hair slightly out of her face as she stared blankly at the concrete on the porch. "What are you most afraid of?" the older woman asked. "This." "What's 'this'?" "The feeling I have right now." "Can you explain it?" "Loneliness. I am scared to spend another moment in this feeling." The older woman shifted in her chair and took in the surroundings of the small apartment porch. Cigarette butts were piled in a cup that sat on top of a tiny outdoor table. "What are you hoping for?" the older woman asked. "I had hoped for a different life. A life where I wasn't a failure, a life where someone loved me." Tears began flowing down the girl's face. The older woman stared intently at her, taking in her features. "I feel like I could scream and no one would hear me." "I would hear you." "I feel like every face I encounter goes home to a life that offers more than mine offers me." "Maybe you should have some water?" “Why can some people be thrown away like a piece of garbage? Why was it okay to do that to me?" The woman looked out into the parking lot and took a deep breath. She could see city lights between the trees in the distance, glistening as the wind blew. "If you could go back, what would you do differently?" "I'd leave. I'd never have gone. I'd have run out the front door and run all the way home, even if I didn't have the money to call a ride." "Did it change the way you viewed yourself?" The girl thought for a moment. "It showed me I'll never be enough. I'll always be a girl who isn't as good as the rest." The girl stood up. She ran her fingers along the metal railing of the porch. Her face was splotched with red, and her shirt had long, damp trails of tears. "I'm going to bed now." "If that's what you want," said the woman. The girl slid open the sliding-glass door and disappeared inside. The woman sat a moment longer and listened to the silence of the night that surrounded her like a thick fog. The plastic floor-to-ceiling shades rattled with the breeze. The woman passed through the small living room, observing the empty pill bottle atop the coffee table. She entered her former room and approached her younger self sleeping in bed. She pulled the covers up to her chest, tucking her in as a mother would. She kissed the girl's forehead and whispered softly: "You will love and be loved. You will bring life into this world and fight for it. You will laugh again and sing and smile. You will see happiness that will touch you with a warmth you've not yet experienced. You will feel the heartbeats of your children as you softly rock them to sleep. You will love yourself for everything you have survived. He took something from you that night, but the universe will give you far more." The woman walked slowly out of the apartment into the hallway. As she reached the end of the hall and entered the parking lot she passed three police officers making their way past her. Sirens rang out into the night air as the woman quietly disappeared into the darkness.