…Five, four, three, two, one….Happy New Year said the voices of Ryan Seacreast and Dick Clark. “Finally! 2011 has arrived”, said Fayth. “I hope this year will be better than 2010.” It was another lonely New Year’s Eve for Fayth. Her teenage daughter, Natalie sound asleep on the living room floor. Fayth hoped to have shared New Year’s with her boyfriend, Nicholas, but again, he was at work. “Well, here’s to me and something new in 2011” Fayth said to herself. Fayth, a single mom of one, had hopes of being somewhere else in her life. The road hasn’t always been easy, but God has shown his faithfulness to her time and time again; even if she didn’t want to admit it. She struggled with her faith. Ironically, her name was Fayth.
Fayth is a paralegal in a law firm, which was medium in size; fifteen attorneys and ten support staff including other paralegals. Though she didn’t always have a good day, she was in her element when she was there.
Family Law is her specialty. That area of law can be very emotional, but she was good at it. Some days she liked what she did, but then there were those other days. But everyone has days like that. She was living paycheck to paycheck; always behind on bills. She could never get a break long enough to catch up. Nonetheless, she was grateful to be working. Every day was the same old thing. Get up, get dressed, take Natalie to school, go to work, go get Natalie from her grandparents’ house, then go home. She longed for companionship. Her boyfriend Nicholas shows up a few days and nights a week, but something was still missing. Her desire was to marry Nicholas. However, he wasn’t quite ready for that yet.
It was Friday and Fayth couldn’t wait to get off work and go home. She craved a big glass of Moscato D’Asti. That was her favorite wine. It’s light, sweet, fizzy and very Italian. She loved it. Fayth longed to see her friend, Cherry Barryman. Cherry is a fun and sweet young woman who used to live next door with her husband, Lance. They were newlyweds and wonderful people. Cherry and Lance didn’t live there anymore. They moved on to bigger and better things. She missed them a lot. However, on the other side lived the neighbor from hell…..Shelly. Shelly worked Fayth’s nerves all the time; constantly making life miserable for her and her daughter in their neighborhood. Shelly drove Fayth crazy. So did Shelly’s three boys. They were always very destructive and mischievous all the time. They didn’t care. Like a tornado whipping through small towns and destroying everything in its path. Fayth had to deal with it. After all, they were neighbors.
While drinking her wine, the phone rings. Fayth always dreaded the phone. Most of the time she was scared it was yet another bill collector on the other line. But this was New Year’s. “Who is calling me right now?”, Fayth says to herself…