No Home, Alone

Brian Plonka

Journal Tribune

Eighteen year old Lewis Valentine, started life on the downside. At the age of 2, his mother abandoned him at a bus stop in Texas, and ever since he has had to struggle on his own. In and out of foster homes for 15 years, Lewis ran away in search of his father in Freedom, PA. Like his mother, his father wanted nothing to do with him. It was back to the streets. Between fights and struggling to find a place to live, Lewis was caught stealing a motorcycle and was jailed. The cockey teenager thought he knew everything, but jail was the exception. He was younger and weaker than most of the inmates. His brovado subsided behind bars. As soon as he was released, it was back to old tricks, but his pockets were nearly empty and he applied for emergency welfare. Lewis struggled to survive on welfare, having barely at times enough money to eat sleep. Lewis finds himself out muscled in a fight with a man didn't like him hanging around his sister.

Brian Plonka, "No Home, Alone," in POYi Archive, Item #20541, http://archive.poy.org/items/show/20541 (accessed April 21, 2025).