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Cocoon: Short story on Poverty Free on Kindle Today

Opening the door to a crack addict on a freezing winter's night leads to a dizzying series of events and the most chilling questions about charity, humanity, and the soul in S. Peña Young's controversial short story inspired by the author's life experiences with the Tampa Urban Project.

Excerpt:
"What are you doing in this part of town, Elma?"
"Jus'ta meet some friends."
Why ask? Sure, friends. Nice friends with nice powders and needles and rocks. Real nice friends who will kill you for a bag of the good stuff. Friends. Kind of how I'm your friend, your supplier, but not drugs, just food, and a ride or two. I'm a supplier, too. 
I wrote Cocoon in 2001 after working with the Tampa Urban Project, an inner city ministry coordinated by Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. As part of the project, college students lived in the inner Ybor City, Tampa, trying to make a tangible difference in the lives of the poor around them. The Tampa Urban Project continues to today, with college students living in the inner city, donating time and resources to help the homeless, watching neighborhood kids, volunteering in programs for the projects, and sometimes just praying with and for their neighbors. 

The truth of the matter is that I was one of the homeless when I started, and I was one that my friends in IVCF were helping. After leaving home and having no place to stay, they took me in. They fixed up a spare room with borrowed furniture. I cried when they showed me my new room...it was a safe place, and where I could heal my broken soul. After several months, I became active in helping with inner city ministry.

This story takes all the fears, thoughts, and emotions that went through my mind as we helped others, and probably echoes many of the same thoughts and emotions that you may feel when you see that ragged person asking for  a handout or smell an old woman pushing a shopping cart past you on the sidewalk. The story takes a few twists that reveal the most shocking absolute: We are all humanity. 

I hope that you find the story compelling and challenging.


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