We work all day and all night. We shed our blood, sweat, and tears for our jobs, our homes, and our families. Some of us don’t make it. Some of us can’t handle the burden. Take old man Johnson. He died of a heart attack four months ago. His hair was very gray for a thirty year old.

Some of us just give up. Look at Ms. Sue. She left her kid at the doorstep of some poor stranger and left town. No one has seen her since.

Then there’s the rest of us. The remaining few. The survivors. Who knows why we’re still here? Some nights… well some nights I forget the reason myself. But still I get up every morning and go to work. Because even when there’s no food, or the lights are off, or the heater is broken, life still goes on around us. The kids still get hungry, the dark still comes with the night, and the cold still creeps up on us like a thief stealing the last strings of hope from our home. So I still work. And when I’m not working, I’m looking for work. And I’m not alone. Most people are in the same kind of situation as my family and me. We’ve worked all day and all night. We’ve shed our blood, our sweat, our tears for our jobs, our homes, and our families. Some of us haven’t made it. Some of us have given up. The rest of us just try to get by. To keep going. To survive.

But if anyone asks, tell them we’re fine.