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The one person you should be able to trust is your mother. Even if there is no one else on your side, your family are the ones that are supposed to be there for you. They're the ones that are never supposed to screw you over- or so it should work, in a perfect world.

The oldest of three children, I always felt close to my mother. Unhappy in her marriage, I'd have been willing to do anything to help her. I did what I could while she struggled through what would eventually become a separation. I bought her and my younger siblings their winter coats one year, and bought groceries when the two of them were too caught up in their own misery to realize that there was no food in the house. I was only a teenager myself, stuck at home for college because I was afraid to desert my sister and brother in the messy situation. I worked after I got out of class and came home to my teary-eyed mother and somber-faced siblings, none of whom knew where they were going or what they were doing.

"We're going to lose the house", my father would say, when he wasn't saying he was leaving. My mother couldn't afford it, and I'd began to believe that my father had become addicted to the pain pills he took to relieve a back injury. He wasn't working, and sometimes it seemed like it went days in between before I saw him conscious. My sister coped by trying to have as many friends as humanly possible, and often I would meet new ones in my tired journey from the front door after work to my bedroom, where I would fall sleeplessly into bed, exhausted but somehow unable to just pass out. I was too tired to worry about it.

I always remembered the happy Christmases of my childhood, and that year, despite the money issues, my mother was struggling to buy gifts. My sister wanted to get her something, and since I had been spending my own hard-earned money on things we all needed, I decided to use the brand-new JC Penneys card I'd gotten to buy my mom a gift. It would have to be paid, but at least I would have a little time, and I'd always been careful to keep my bills and accounts to date.

We went to the mall and spent several hours looking around the store. I was only willing to spend about $100 of the $300 opening balance, but with the holiday sales well in progress, we were able to pick out a half-dozen or so things for somewhere around $80. We went to the register and I handed the cashier my shiny new card.

"I'm sorry, miss, but it's been declined," the clerk told me.

"What? It's a brand new card!"

"It

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