The Secret Life of Jolly Rancher (D, age 11)

That night Jolly Rancher was scared of the dark. Then he remembered he brought a flashlight to help him see at night and not to be afraid of the dark. He turned on the flashlight and after a couple of minutes the flashlight suddenly turned off.
AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! SCREAMED Jolly Rancher. D.J. said SSSSHHHHHHHHHH! We are going to get caught by the Pony Police. Jolly Rancher could not go to sleep so he sang a song and by the 100th time of singing the song he was able to fall asleep next to D.J.

T -age unknown (Younger than me; older than her children!)

The back story here is that she and her 3 children were in a horribly abusive relationship with her husband/their father. Just go with "nightmare" and you'll pretty much have the idea.

Don't ask me why I'm thinking about the dog we used to have. I miss him. I've thought of going back to where we used to live, to see if I can find him. But the people who live there now would probably think I was weird.

His name was Dingo, and he was HUGE. People would think that he wss scary, but he was a big old baby. He wasn't allowed on the bed because we had a water bed. But once the comforter was on the bed, and he couldn't hurt the water bed, I would let him get up there and snuggle with me and the kids.

But when my husband started hurting us, Dingo got tough. After it had been going on a while, Dingo would growl whenever my husband would come in the house. He would snarl if my husband walked into the kids' rooms. He would try to get in between him and the kids. He never left the baby's side.

Eventually my husband just started hurting the dog too. Then he bought a chain and chained him outside, with the chain hooked to a big fence. I would let Dingo loose when he was at work, but I knew I had to have the dog chained up again before he got home. But I know that dog wanted to protect us. I don't know if we'll get another dog when we get a house again. Maybe we would jsut compare the new dog to Dingo, and that would be awful.

B -Age 50-ish

Some days here at Hesed House are almost too much. I try to pitch in and make sure everything is done, but then I feel badly when I have to say no to some people. Like today... two people are in the hospital and a third person is probably going. Who's going to do their chores? Who's going to make sure that H can get home from the hospital if I don't do it?

Joe (my therapist) says that I need to set limits -that people push me and pull me in different directions. I have to figure out where I want to go. But I don't know how to do that yet. It's loud here. Baby L is getting teeth and screamed all night. The kids run around and scream. There is no quiet place to think.

I'm thankful to be here. Don't get me wrong. It's just that it takes a lot of work to be here. People on the outside forget that.

I Have a House -k, age 5

I have a house now. It's white. The bathroom is green. My bedroom is blue. Well, my blanket and pillow are blue. The walls are...not blue. I think they're white. It's on a street by that store. You should come visit. My mom says that we can't jump on the beds, but we can jump rope in the yard. Will you come visit me? I'll have to go to a different school next year, that's fine.

H's Reflections

As I sit here and write, I would never have thought I could have a smile on my face like I do today. My life has changed drastically.

I became homeless with two children about a year ago. Not by choice! The main reason I became homeless was that I need to escape a domestically violent situation. A daily struggle to survive became a lifestyle for my family. I wanted and needed something better for all of us. So, the three of us came to Hesed hosue and began our journey.

It definitely wasn't an easy journey. But I gained strength to go on, more friends -an extended family, really-, took care of medical needs for myself and my children, learned some parenting tricks for having a better relationship with my kids, gained important documents, counseling, and financial support.

And most importantly, I have now obtained my own home. My journey at Hesed House is now over, but my journey in life is not. I hope that my new beginning will be a lot easier than the last "new beginning!"

I thank everyone who has been through the last year of my struggles. My children and I can't say it enough or show how much we appreciate Hesed House.

Thank you!

Here Come the Sun Again T-age 13

Long, long ago, the sun burned out on purpose because everyone was trying to put her in their homes so that they could see. It was really dark without the sun; no one could see a thing. But then, a woman made a lantern. Everyone was happy then, because now at least everyone could see a little bit.

The people wanted to be able to see a whole lot more, though, so they asked the sun to come out again. The sun said, "no!". When the people asked why, the sun said, "because I am mad at all of you". The people wanted to know more about that. The sun reminded them that in the past they had all tried to take little parts of her, and she's afraid that they will do it again.

The sun reminded them that the lanterns they liked so much each had a little bit of the sun in them. The old lady who invented the lanterns had tricked the sun into giving up a part of herself. So the people said, 'we won't try that again". The sun's answer was "if you find the other parts of me that she didn't give back, then I'll come back and light up the earth."

So then the people set out to search for the sun parts. They found the pieces and hurried back, trying not to drop the pieces. They were afriad that the sun pieces would burn everything in their path. They were successful, returned the pieces of the sun, and the sun shone again over all the land.

The Amazing Hike (A. age 10)

One day an amazing thing happened at the Hesed House. The amazing thing that happened is that there was an amazing hike. There is something amazing that happened on that hike; they found animal tracks and they followed them. The animal tracks led to a bear and its cave.

The good thing is that the bear was sleeping and none of the people wanted to wake it up. But once when one of the people woke it up by stepping on a very large stick, the bear starting chasing the people! The people ran all over the place until they found shelter. Their shelter was a high tree, and they were stuck in the high branches.

Everyone was okay, except for one person. She couldn't climb up the tree. She kept trying and trying. But fortunately, the bear got tired and ran away.

editor's note: I feel the need to point out that this is a work of fiction. There was a hike. There was no bear. Thank heavens.