Write the Christmas story for Pretty Bird Woman House

by: Andy Ternay

Wed Dec 19, 2007 at 06:40:13 AM MST

A frightened woman on the Standing Rock Reservation feels her pregnant belly and checks the weather. It's below freezing. Should she stay and get beaten again or flee? There's no money for a hotel. She can't stay but she can't risk the lethal cold.  

She has called Pretty Bird Woman House women's shelter, but their building was destroyed by arson. They have no place for her. Georgia Little Shield, Director of Pretty Bird Woman House promised to try shelters on neighboring reservations and see if there was room. The woman feels the baby kick as she stares at the phone, not daring to hope. It rings.

"It's Georgia," says the lady on the phone.

"There's room in another shelter?" asks the woman.

A long silence follows,then Georgia says, "We'll work something out. Let's get you safe. Okay?"

Another Christmas; and a expectant mother with nowhere to go. But there is good news: The ending to this story has not been written. You will write the ending.