• Marina hunched her shoulders against the cold winds, pulling the scrap of fabric she wore as a "wrap" closer against her body. No one was on the road that morning; even the other beggars weren't as desperate as Marina. She stood silently on the front stoop of the general store, hoping the owner would not notice her and shoo her off.

    There was no where warm to go. Everywhere was cold to Marina. That winter was hard on the city, and even the poor houses, especially for the beggars and homeless, were full of young children and mothers. There was no room there for a healthy, if not hungry, adult woman with no child.

    The flowers she had were lovely, even in their austerity. Plain, white, yet so beautiful it pierced one's heart. She could have made enough money to find a warm bed that night, if not for the aforementioned absence of customers. Marina sighed. There was not much more she could do.

    Another blast of icy air billowed through the narrow street, and Marina bolted off in the opposite direction, in an attempt to find a better location.

    It was not easy going for Marina. She could have been an entertainer, were it not for her high morals.

    Marina, for all her dirtiness and lowness of status in society, was actually a pretty girl. Every time the wind blew, her black curls were tossed up around her high-cheek boned face, and her startlingly bright blue eyes. No, Marina was not nor would she ever be homely by any definition.

    Soon she reached the main thoroughfare of the city, where a few brave souls had ventured out in the morning to try and get the day's business done. Marina brightened considerably, and approached a man whose jacket whipped about him.

    "Sir," she began in her edged northern accent, "would you please buy a-"

    The man shoved her out of his way before she could finish, muttering something about vagrants under his breath. Marina brushed herself off, and hurried down the street towards the other people.

    She tried to approach an old woman, but the crazy loon beat her with her walking stick, cursing her and telling her to find a real job instead of begging.

    For you see, life is not kind to a beggar. Many beggars actually try to work, and are sometimes just too tired to work any longer. They are beaten and punished and cursed for their standing in life, when most of them are trying so hard, and would do anything to move up in the world. Marina was no exception. She would work until her feet blistered, or until she was nearly frostbitten, and still would no rest without complaint and resistance.

    Marina, who'd begone to grow wary of the people about, decided to approach one last woman before she moved on.

    This woman seemed closer to her own age, a young lady in society. Why in the world she was out on a day like that was no business of Marina's, but she did seem to have a bit of coin on her.

    "Excuse me, miss?" Marina said quietly, standing at a distance so she could run in she had to.

    The woman looked up and seemed shocked to see a beggar in front of her. She wrung her gloved hands and pulled her coat closer to herself, much like Marina had, but with a sense of status that clearly marked her as a high society lady. Well, that, and her clothes were very fine; a beautiful hoop-skirted gown that was clearly not made for that sort of day.

    "Yes?" the woman enquired with a lilting voice.

    Marina gluped, and lifted the edge of the blanket covering the flowers to show the woman. "W-would you buy a flower please?"

    Heart hammering in her chest, Marina recoiled when the woman opened her coat, but recovered in time to take the three copper coins the woman gave her. Dumbfounded, she looked at the lady, and stammered out the question, "how many would you like?"

    The woman wrung her hands again, and seemed to think about it. "Just one," she said finally, and crisply stretched her hand out for the flower.

    Marina found the best flower of the lot, and gave it to the woman with a smiler larger than one any person had seen on her face in a long time. "Thank you, miss."

    The woman was already gone, hurrying down the street to catch a taxi-carriage. Marina waved to the woman, and hurried down the street to find more customers.

    While life really isn't kind to beggars, just one small ray of light must be let in. For if Marina can lift away the curtain of despair to find happiness in just three little copper coins, then so must the rest of us find our joys where we can.