{"id":52,"date":"2024-01-04T01:34:29","date_gmt":"2024-01-04T07:34:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.danifellis.com\/publication\/?p=52"},"modified":"2025-10-01T01:34:40","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T06:34:40","slug":"a-future-after-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danifellis.com\/publication\/a-future-after-all\/","title":{"rendered":"A Future After All"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Seven years gone. Not in a flash, that would have been a blessing. The years had lingered and festered. Started when she was twenty-three. Now she is thirty. Her twenties had slipped through her grasp like she was trying to grip water.<\/p>\n

Vanessa sat in her cell. Hands wringing. Foot tapping. She was impatient. This day had been the only thing that had kept her going. But freedom wasn\u2019t what she was thinking about. Only one thing was on her mind.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

Why had she done something so stupid? Why risk her entire future for a few bucks? She knew why. Desperation. That\u2019s what put most of these women in this horrendous, life-draining dump.<\/p>\n

What could she do now? Vanessa wanted to feel hopeful for her future. But she didn\u2019t have one anymore. Eight years ago, she graduated thinking a bright future was ahead of her. In under a year, her life was burned down and she had no one to blame but herself.<\/p>\n

What now?<\/p>\n

A terse voice called her name. Vanessa looked up, seeing the guard. For all her moping, she quickly jumped to her feet, grabbing her few belongings before bolting through the open bars.<\/p>\n

Outside, the breeze of freedom brushed against her face. She couldn\u2019t do anything but stand there, finally realizing. She had survived! The suffering was over.<\/p>\n

A figure rushing across the parking lot caught her attention. She didn\u2019t recognize the teenager at first. He had been a boy when she went in.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrian!\u201d She screamed, running towards him.<\/p>\n

\u201cAunt Van!\u201d He yelled, embracing her. \u201cI\u2019ve missed you!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI missed you too buddy! Look at how tall you\u2019ve grown!\u201d Vanessa said, holding him tightly. Her eyes stung with tears of joy. She was embraced by two others. Cathy and Damien. She had missed them so much.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe prepared the barn for you,\u201d Cathy said when they were in the car, her head twisting around the seat to look at Vanessa in the back. Brian was sitting beside her.<\/p>\n

Vanessa made a face, \u201cYou\u2019re sticking me with the cows.\u201d<\/p>\n

Damien laughed, \u201cThey\u2019re in the new barn. We fixed up the old barn for you. Made an apartment upstairs.\u201d A weight lifted off Vanessa\u2019s shoulders. It was almost impossible for an ex-con to find a place.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you guys!\u201d Vanessa said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not all. Remember Julie?\u201d Cathy asked, \u201cShe owns that bridal shop downtown. I talked to her. When you\u2019re ready, she has a job for you. You can use my car to get into town.\u201d Vanessa was speechless. She didn\u2019t know if she deserved this kindness. Not after messing up her life so horribly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what to say.\u201d Vanessa said, \u201cI don\u2019t know what I would do without you.\u201d Words couldn\u2019t express her gratitude.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we had no one else, we had you.\u201d Damien said, \u201cDon\u2019t worry. We got you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brian leaned over and gave her another hug. Vanessa was full of joy. She did have a future after all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seven years gone. Not in a flash, that would have been a blessing. The years had lingered and festered. Started when she was twenty-three. Now she is thirty. Her twenties had slipped through her grasp like she was trying to grip water. Vanessa sat in her cell. Hands wringing. Foot…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danifellis.com\/publication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danifellis.com\/publication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danifellis.com\/publication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danifellis.com\/publication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danifellis.com\/publication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.danifellis.com\/publication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53,"href":"https:\/\/www.danifellis.com\/publication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions\/53"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danifellis.com\/publication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danifellis.com\/publication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danifellis.com\/publication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}