Charli Cook
Numbered Story

Character-6: a homeless person
Setting-3: a celebration party
Time-5: sometime in December
Situation/Challenge-5: someone has found or lost something

The crisp December air stung Oliver's already aching cold body. Oliver often gathered his belongings in his shopping cart and moved from place to place, all the while asking himself how this could have happened to me? Homeless he would sigh to himself. Is this really the reality of my life?
Just two years before Oliver had the world at the tip of his fingers. He was happily married to his high school sweetheart. Well at least Oliver thought they had been happy. Maria was her name and he loved her with every beat of his aging heart and never seen the end of their 29 year marriage anywhere in sight.
“Where is your wedding ring?” Oliver asked his wife one night after they had arrived home from their son's homecoming celebration party. Their son Mark had been touring in Europe for the last 10 years with his rock band the Screaming Eagles. Maria softly replied in her normal distant disgusted voice “I..I don't know. I seemed to have lost it.”
That's when it all started. The end to what he thought was so special. He woke to shuffling noises coming from the closet. Groggy he asked Maria what she was doing. “Your out!!!!” is all that she replied. Thoughts raced through his head. Where will I go? Who do I have now? Mark their son was on tour again and lives on the road, and he was the only other person Oliver could turn to. The word homeless flashed through his brain. This can't happen it just can't. Oliver begged and pleaded but after all of his belongings were now in their front yard their was nothing that he could do. So he carried as much as he could and started walking. He didn't know where but he was going and he had to figure out something. Unfortunately homeless has been his only option for the last two years of his life.