7:16 AM – New York City

Mary Anne is staring at herself in the bathroom mirror and

whispering motivational quotes in her tiny Spanish Harlem
apartment.
"I think I can. I think I can. I think I can."
She is about to go to another casting call that she will not
get. Unable to pay her rent for the third straight month, her
landlord will be forced to evict her.
Mary Anne will have to move back to Montana and take up
the night shift at the Red Roof Inn, where she will work for the
next seven years due to an unexpected pregnancy. She will not
return to New York again.
She will, however, continue with her “acting,” starring in
her neighboring town’s local community college productions.
Mary Anne finally decides to quit after The Honesdale County
Press gives her performance in “Airplane!: The Musical” a
negative review.
A suicide attempt will be made when she loses her custody
battle. Luckily, a nice Jehova’s witness will save her, giving her—
and God—another deserved chance.
6:16 AM – Ciudad Juarez

Señora Ramirez is waiting outside the US Embassy

clutching a folder stuffed with government documents. She has
been anxiously waiting in line for three hours along with one-
hundred-and-eighteen people. It's quite a chilly morning. She
tugs at her worn out cardigan for warmth.
She does not mind waiting. Señora Ramirez has, literally,
been waiting all of her life. What’s a couple of more hours, she
thinks to herself, and is the only thing she thinks for there is no
room for negative thoughts.
Right before she left her tiny house, in her tiny town,
where she has lived all of her 67 years in that tiny frame of hers’,
she lit a candle and prayed. For Senora Ramirez, along with 97%
of the Mexican population, is what you call a “devout Catholic”
and rare breed indeed.
She believes that Dios—along with Jesus and Lupita of
course—will guide her throughout this process. That she will
finally see her kids Benny, Diego, Margarita, Juan, Ramon, Pablo,
Julio, and Linda; her favorites.
In eight hours and twenty-seven minutes she will be denied
a US Visa. She will return to her small town and pass away in
forty-two days. Her children, who are in California, will not be able
to attend her funeral due to deportation fears.