Aria didn’t know where her real mother was. She had been taken by the state at seven years old. From what Aria had been able to piece together, her mother had dropped out of high school when she was 16 years old after finding out that she was pregnant. Her name was Lucy. She was named after the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” She used to play that song for Aria on repeat when Aria was young. The lyrics were etched into Aria’s memory for all time. Her mother loved music. She had always wanted to play the guitar but because Aria came along, she hadn’t had the time or resources to learn. When Aria was born, Lucy stared down at her perfect little face and felt that this baby was her great creation, this baby was her song … her aria. And so Lucy named her as such.

After Aria was born, Lucy had struggled to afford day care. She worked at a fast-food restaurant to afford a low-income apartment. Aria could only just remember the contours of her face. Most of all, she remembered the look of desperation and she remembered the bruises. When Aria was four, her mother had met a man named Travis. He was in his 20s when he got a job washing dishes at the fast-food joint that Lucy worked in. Travis became enamored with Lucy. They began flirting at work and he eventually asked her out on a date. Desperate for love and support, she was relieved to find someone to share her burdens. Travis moved in shortly after they met. Aria could still remember the sound of his blue Camaro.

Two weeks after he moved in with them, Lucy walked to work on a bitter cold morning only to find a note on the door of the building that said “Closed out of business.” The owner of the chain had known the business was going under for quite some time, but could only bring himself to tell the managers. And the managers did not bother to tell the staff. With no warning, just like that, Lucy was out of a job.

For the next two weeks, she tried desperately to find work, but each time she went in for an interview they would tell her something to the tune of, “We’ll call you back within two weeks to tell you if you have the job.” Despite her embarrassment, sheer desperation drove Lucy to apply for food stamps. But when she walked up to the desk with her paperwork filled out, the woman behind the social services desk informed her that it would take up to 30 days to receive her benefits in the mail. She went to a local food bank but the doors were closed for the night. That evening, Lucy stole a can of soup and an apple from a local supermarket because she didn’t know what else to do.