The woman walked into the studio. Her long, reddish-orange rust coloured hair combed neatly straight, her eyes of a similar colour looking about the place, as she had never been in a place such as this. There were cameras, lights, and various equipment rigging all around. Typical talk-show studio. A couple of techs were still setting up, as the show wasn't due to start its special live broadcast until noon today and it was only just past 7:30 in the morning. The woman was looking around, trying to find any way she could be of some use, when the shows host came over. His curly brown hair, and friendly blue eyes. It was Ryan Seacrest. 

    "Hey," Ryan said to the woman with a smile, "I'm glad you're here. You are a bit early."

    "Bonjour, Ryan," the woman said, returning the nice gesture. "I just wanted to get an early start on today."

    "Well the showing isn't until noon, so you have plenty of time to get ready."

    "Is there any way I could help at all?"

    "Sure, you can help Angela with the coffee if you want," he said pointing to a kitchenette over on the other side of the studio.

    "Alright," the woman said with a smile. She walked over to the small kitchen and she helped Angela with the coffee.

    "Are you our special guest?" Angela asked the woman as they scooped ground coffee into the filters of the coffee machine.

    "Yes, I am," the woman said with a touch of shyness. The filters soon reached capacity.

    "Yeah, we heard a lot about you, and were happy that you can share your story with the world today."

    "But I'm so nervous!" the woman said as they closed the top of the coffee machine and Angela turned it on.

    "Yeah, but I'm sure you'll get used to it. You'll forget the camera is even there."

    "Alright," the woman said, contemplating whether or not to believe in Angela. As the morning slowly progressed by, more and more people showed up and helped with the studio. The lights, sound, cameras, and such. The studio director came through and made sure that everyone would be in their proper places by the time it came to live broadcast their special show.

    "Are you ready?" he asked the woman.

    "Yes, I'm just a little nervous," she answered.

    "Don't worry," Ryan said, "just look at me, and forget the cameras. They won't be up in your face, they'll just be back there, and you just look at me."

    "Alright, I'll try my best."

    "Alright, we're live in 10 minutes!" the director announced to the cast and crew. After a few last minute rehearsals and cue practices, the director announced the countdown as the clock read 11:59. "Okay we're live in 5... 4... 3... 2..." The woman took a deep breath as the show began.

2: Ch. 2

    "Hello," Ryan began looking at a camera. "Today we have a special show for all of you viewers out there. Today, we're be talking to a woman as she tells us, her rather special story of how she and her mother came here to America and tried to make a living. So, I'm very happy to introduce, from Paris France, Serena Fay." The director cued camera two to show them both sitting by the table.

    "Merci, Ryan," Serena said, looking at him. "It is very nice for you to have me here today."

    "Now Serena, you are here to tell us and everyone in the whole United States of America who is watching right now, your story."

    "Yes. I guess I should start with what my mother told me," Serena said, "My mother was living in the slums of Paris. She could barely afford the small apartment she lived in at the time."

    "So, this was before you were born?" Ryan asked.

    "Yes. I was born on the boat across the Atlantic to New York."

    "Oh, so your Mother bought a boat ticket?"

    "Mm-hm," Serena said nodding, "She gave the captain all of the money she had and begged him to take her over to America. Since it was the captain who had actually convinced her to come to America, he was very nice and he brought us over."

    "So, can I ask how long was this boat ride?"

    "It was about a week and a half. The captain was more than happy to make sure that Mother was comfortable on the way over. He was very kind."

    "So, he was one of the nicer people that you and your mother met, here in America."

    "Oh yes. Mother said that the boat captain... I forget his name."

    "That's totally okay, I'm sure that if he is watching, he would be very thankful to hear that."

    "Yes. He was the nicest man my mother had ever met." Serena sighed and took a sip of her water. "We arrived in New York where we lived until I was five years old."

    "Okay, so you stayed in New York for a while."

    "Yes."

    "What part of New York did you stay in, do you remember?"

    "Yes, it was somewhere in the tenements of mid-to-upper Manhattan."

    "Oh, so very cheap apartments."

    "Oui. Very, very cheap."

    "So what did your mother do for a job, at the time?"

    "She looked for work everywhere she could. She spoke very good English, so it hurts that she was treated like a non-English speaking immigrant."

    "I'm very sorry to hear that. I think it greatly shows the differences in peoples' hearts."

    "Yes. Mother worked in a few local restaurants cleaning up after hours and cleaning the dishes."

    "Basic work?"

    "Yes. Minimum wage. Back then, it barely saw us through."

    "Yeah, it wasn't very much back then. How much was she making?"

    "$3 an hour, about 5 hours a day."

    "That's only a bit more than $100 a week." Serena nodded.

    "But my mother loved me, very much. She put me before herself."

    "Okay, now some of us watching will want to know what you mean."

    "Well," Serena said glancing at the camera, "she always bought me food first, before she ate herself. She always put me first. Sometimes, she went to work hungry, while I stayed home. There was one day, she told me not to get into our food, and I was so hungry... I couldn't help myself. When Mother came home, I had eaten nearly everything we had. Mother wasn't angry with me though. Besides, I felt guilty for eating all our food."

    "So she understood?"

    "Yes. She knew I was hungry and since she didn't have very much money, she could only buy a small loaf of bread and a bottle of water. The other few cents we put toward saving to pay the rent."

    "So, to me... you were living on that very fine line between homeless and poverty."

    "Yes."

    "Now that is a very, very fine line that very few Americans live on. Where you do own a home of some kind, yet are barely able to afford other provisions."

    "Mm-hm. I don't imagine that very many people live the same way."

    "So, what happened that caused you and your mother to leave New York?"

    "Well, it was my 5th birthday, and Mother wanted to get me something special."

    "Oh, so what did you get for your 5th birthday?"

    "I was given a diary."

    "That's neat. Did you like it?"

    "Oui Ryan. I loved it. It was in that diary that Mother taught me how to write."

    "That was very nice of her. Do you still have it?"

    "I do. Actually, I have brought it with me."

    "Oh, I'm sure the audience would like to see it." Serena laughed and she pulled out her old diary. It looks a bit worn, but the writing on the inside was still very legible. "That is amazing. So you learned to write using this?"

    "Reading and writing."

    "That was very nice of your mother to do that." Serena nodded in agreement, holding it close to her.

    "It was. After I was able to write, I used it to record how we lived."

    "So, you wrote out your entire life's story?"

    "Well, it did take another few diaries," she said with a light laugh.

    "Yeah, I would think so," Ryan said with smile.

    "So, also on my birthday, Mother had bought herself one of those lottery cards."

    "Oh, she did?"

    "Yeah, she knew it was my birthday, but I understood. It was just one dollar she risked."

    "Did she win?"

    "Actually yes. It was $1000."

    "Wow. Now, to most, a thousand would be a small, yet still a pretty good prize, but for you and your mother..."

    "It was my best birthday ever."

    "So what did you do with the money your Mom had won?"

    "Well, the next day, the rent was due, and for some reason, the landlord had doubled the rent, so we decided it was time to leave."

    "It almost makes you wonder if your landlord doubled your rent right as your mother won a thousand bucks."

    "Yes, I imagine he somehow heard and he wanted some of it."

    "There are some landlords who do that." He looked at the camera. "We will continue with your story Serena, but right now, we have to go to commercial break."

3: Ch. 3

    "So how did you leave New York?" Ryan asked.

    "Well, Mother was able to buy a really cheap car. It was only about $350," Serena said. She flipped through her old diary. "Yes, $362, I wrote."

    "Ah. So your Mother had presumably been given a license."

    "Well, she did have one back in France, so she had the permit to drive in America."

    "Oh, yes. I forgot."

    "It's okay. There would come a time when she would have to get an American license though."

    "Yeah, those permits don't last, how long was it?"

    "It was a 12-month."

    "So a year long driving permit."

    "Mm-hm."

    "So let's go back to you and your mother leaving New York."

    "Yes. We packed what we had and she drove us down the east coast. Don't worry, we still had a decent portion of the $1000 so we had plenty of gas money." Ryan laughed. "We drove down to the state of Virginia where we had to stay the night. Luckily, the hotel owner needed some help, as one of the maids had quit that day, so he was more than happy to hire Mother to do some temporary work. In exchange for the work, he allowed us to stay there."

    "In the hotel?"

    "Yes. Mother made some more money while I was in the room."

    "What did you do, while you were in the room?"

    "Well, I write in my diary. I did so every day. But also, there were a few guests, every now and again, who had children my age, so I made a few friends on the playground in the back of the hotel, by the pool."

    "You made some friends, huh?"

    "Yes. I told them my story and they seemed to understand. One boy said he thought it was cool to live in a hotel. He made this funny joke that I could have room service and servants."

    "Living the high life."

    "Oui," Serena laughed. "He was a nice boy."

    "That was very cool."

    "Yeah lets see, I think I have his name written down... here. Jonny Smith, from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania."

    "John, if you're watching, Serena would like to thank you."

    "Merci, John! You were a great friend," Serena said to the camera.

    "Now, can we bring it back to how long did you stay at this hotel?"

    "We stayed there about a month before we drove out of Virginia. We drove until Mother found some fast food work in Nashville."

    "Oh, Tennessee?"

    "Oui, Ryan. Mother worked at a McDonalds there for a few days. That paycheck got us out of Tennessee and into Kansas City."

    "Wow, so you and your mother have worked your way across the country."

    "Yes. She worked until I was eventually old enough to get a job and we both worked."

    "That is just incredible."

    "Mother worked in Kansas City the longest. She found a good job working in the meat-packing factories there. She counted the inventory of the shipments."

    "So she actually got a pretty good job there?"

    "Yes. She made enough that she was able to afford for me to go to a public school."

    "That is very cool. So how long did you stay in KC?"

    "Well, I was 5 when we moved there and I was 6 by the time mother could afford school, so I went to an Elementary school in Olathe."

    "Were you scared?"

    "I was very scared, Ryan. Very scared. Since it was the kindergarten grade, all of the children were just starting school, so we were all scared."

    "Yeah, I understand. I was nervous my first year of school too."

    "I stayed away from the other children. I just wanted to try to get the best education I could while Mother worked in the factories."

    "So you didn't make any friends?"

    "Not really. Besides, when everyone knew I was foreign, they assumed I didn't know much English."

    "Clearly you do."

    "Well, I wasn't this good. I was only 6," she said with a laugh.

    "Of course," he said, and Serena laughed. "So how long did you live in Olathe?"

    "Well, since Mother had finally found a good-paying job, and after a while, we were able to afford an apartment. We lived in Olathe until I was in 6th grade."

    "Oh, so you stayed there for what, 6 years?"

    "It was 7."

    "And, going back to your diary, did you record everything in those seven years?"

    "Of course. I'm thinking that maybe I should have it all published."

    "I would do the same thing, Serena. I think it's a good idea to share your life's story with the entire world. In fact, I think that after the show, we should get ahold of a publishing company who will be willing to publish your works."

    "That's a great idea Ryan. Merci."

    "You are very welcome. I think that we'll take another quick commercial break and we'll be back with more of Serena's amazing story."

4: Ch. 4

    "Hello viewers we are back," Ryan said to the camera. "Now before we left, Serena, you telling us that you had lived in Olathe Kansas for seven years?"

    "Yes, Ryan," Serena said, sipping her cup of tea.

    "So what happened after this seventh year?"

    "Well, the factory where Mother had worked had shut down. She couldn't find another job anywhere in the Kansas City area, so one of the employee managers from the factory said that there were some factories out west in California that were being built and needed workers."

    "So I imagine that you and your mother moved from Olathe and headed west, right?"

    "Yes. Mother had been able to afford a... slightly better car, and I had begun writing... oh I've forgotten how many diaries I had written. Every single time I had filled out a notebook, I went to the store for another."

    "That is incredible. I can picture your shelf at home just full of these old notebooks." He and Serena both laughed lightly.

    "Yes. I must have at least 70 or 80 notebooks by now."

    "Wow. You have documented your entire life, haven't you?"

    "Oui. I'm still writing even today."

    "I can image so. Now, back to your travels," he said as she sipped her tea. "When you headed west, where did you stop?"

    "We stopped at a hotel in Denver. Once we had sent the night, we moved on and into Utah. There we stopped in Salt Lake City."

    "How long were you and your Mother there?"

    "Well, there, Mother had found a temporary fast-food job for a few weeks."

    "Oh."

    "While we were there, I attended a high school."

    "Oh. What was that like?"

    "Well, there were some people who wanted to be friends, especially when they found out I was French, but I told them that I would only be there a short while, so I didn't really want to make any friends."

    "Aw, I'm sorry. But I can understand why though. To have to go through the pain of separation, especially from friends, who you may never see again."

    "Oui. But nevertheless, I still wrote their names down." Serena opened one of the notebooks she had brought along with her. At the corner on the front cover was the first date entered to the last. "Yes. Thomas Schmidt, William Preston, Maddie Wheeler, Daisy Radcliffe, and Carrie Hardwell."

    "Is there something you'd like to say if any of them are watching right now?"

    "Oui. I'm sure by now you guys understand what I said. I thank you if you do. To be honest, even though I wanted to stay separate, you guys were a great group of students, and I appreciate the fact that you all offered to be my friend. Merci." Serena wiped a tear from her eye and sipped her tea again.

    "I would like to thank you five personally for being so gracious to my friend here today," Ryan said to the camera. "So Serena, could you tell me what happened after you left Salt Lake City?"

    "Well, when we stopped for the night that day, we had made it to Las Vegas."

    "Oh."

    "There things..." Serena seemed reluctant to continue. "Well... things just..."

    "Did you lose your money?"

    "Oh no. Mother knew to stay away from the casinos."

    "So what happened?"

    "Mother was buying a snack from the snack machine at the cheap hotel we stayed at." Ryan nodded for her to continue. "A-and this man walked up to her, and offered to take her to his room."

    "Oh, okay. I think I can see where this is beginning to go. If you don't want to talk about it, then you don't have to, I'm not making you-"

    "No. It's fine. Besides, I think that everyone should hear this."

    "Well, alright. But before you do, we'll be taking another commercial break, okay?"

    "Okay."

    "Alright. We'll be right back, viewers."