Sounds of car horns and angry voices shook her from an alcohol induced sleep.The foul taste of bourbon and cigarettes were thick on her tongue, along with the sick, sweet taste of a stranger's pleasure.

She gazed through puffy, tired eyes around the disheveled room. Someone...a stranger to her...lay nearby. His hulking body heaved with each labored snore. His nakedness embarrassed her in the bright morning light. She felt her stomach turn.

Her head spun as she headed towards the bathroom. She looked down at the floor to keep her balance. Crumpled lingerie, defiled by the passion of the previous evenings tryst laid there.

The sight nauseated her all the more.

God, what had happened to her life?

The image she saw in the mirror was almost more than she could bare. Mascara was running down her cheeks...remnants of the tears she shed as she tried desperately to forget who she was and what she had made of her life. A garish red dash of lipstick crossed her dry lips of bitter disappointment. She had dark circles under her eyes that no longer saw hope or beauty in the world.

She leaned in closer to the mirror trying to seek the person that she once knew, in those eyes.

As she gazed upon her reflection she wondered.. Whatever happened to the sweet and innocent child that her Mother once loved?