Hard Life at the Orphanage

It was a starry, bright sky, unexpected to see in central London. We all know there are billions of stars on the stellar sky ... but that night they seemed to be at least twice as many. There was almost no need for street lamps or moonlight. The moon looked like a big carriage lazing in the sky trying to throw her weight around the little stars.

It was so nice outside, even though it was so cold, that anyone lying on the roof of the orphanage “Angel’s hand”, did not regret that light show in the sky.

“It's wonderful ...” the silence was broken by a crystalline voice of a little girl. It was Elizabeth Catherine Edwards, who was to celebrate the fine and wonderful age of nine.

Yet, her face could not be seen, because it was completely covered just like a Bedouin’s in the desert, covered in thick, old blankets from head to toe because of the biting cold outside.

“Yes ... and you didn't want to come up here. It's cold…. Very cold, you were crying like a kitten”, another voice came from a pile of blankets. That pile with the same kind of shabby blankets lay on the old roof. The girl sat on her back gazing at the multitude of luminous constellations scattered about the lurid sky.

The other girl, Elizabeth's best friend, was Dorothy Miller. Dorothy's appearance couldn’t be distinguished either, but one could see, even with the multitude of blankets she was covered with and hid her, that she was a chubbier girl than Elizabeth.

Dorothy was eleven years old, and besides being like a sister to Elizabeth, she was the one who took care of Elizabeth since the first day they met.

They became best friends the moment they saw each other, the day when Elizabeth was brought to the orphanage. Dorothy gladly welcomed Elizabeth into her bed, when no one wanted to have the bed anyway too small, seized by a weak and sickly little girl.

And since then, the two girls did everything together. They slept together, ate together, and did together even the daily chores that the orphanage's management forced the children to do, to get used to the hard life, they said. The two girls were inseparable.

When Dorothy suffered from a mild form of pneumonia, which could have unwanted consequences, it was Elizabeth who took care of her ... Not the intendants, not Miss Blackwood, whom nobody liked, but Elizabeth Edwards.

She was the one who tried to lower her fever with wipes rubbed with snow from outside, brought in as many times as it was necessary although it was freezing cold. She often went out barefoot having no time to put on shoes, for Dorothy was like a burning furnace. Poor darling, she used to come back with hands and feet numb from the bitter cold outside, but she did not complain. When she saw Dorothy opened her eyes and smiled, she forgot about the frost she had to go through. She got warm ... from her pure, kind heart to those around her and went out again to bring the snow so necessary to lower Dorothy's fever.

One day Elizabeth had her ankle twisted and no one cared about her except Dorothy. On the contrary, Mrs. Blackwood was glad she was right again with her words, when she kept telling her that she would break her leg one day if she went on jumping like a little goat and so it happened.

Dorothy was the one who assisted Elizabeth. For four days Dorothy struggled until the poor luckless blonde girl managed to walk again on her own. She used to join her absolutely everywhere, being tied up as sisters are.

Despite all, now the girls felt good, healthy, they spent time on the roof gazing at the mass of stars, competing in imagining interesting creatures up there.

“Here's a pony”, said one of them.

It was Dorothy pointing at a constellation.

“It's more like a ... I think it's Capricorn's constellation,” Elizabeth replied.

Suddenly there appeared a small pony, made of a little balloon taken out of a toy circle with unicorn shape. On top of that, it was also lit up, as if that constellation from heaven came down and took life in that pony just created.

The bright unicorn hopped for a while around the girls highlighting the roof after which it broke leaving behind only dimness and some splashes of water.

The two girls looked at each other.

“You did something again...” Elizabeth looked at Dorothy, inquiring.

Dorothy was just as curious. It was not the first time when such mysterious things happened. Around them, when they were together, such unusual things kept happening all the time. Still, the two were just as puzzled now. And as usual, they blamed each other, unaware which of them made appear ... that stuff.

Of course, then, as they did each time something curious happened, they looked carefully around to be sure there wasn’t someone else to follow them and make these shapes.

“It was you for sure, this time I didn't really do anything. Look, I held my blanket,” Dorothy apologized, after making sure there was no one around them.

Elizabeth looked into the bedroom and tried to scare Dorothy:

“Maybe it was Miss Blackwood ... I think I saw her at the window too,” she smiled, letting the other realize it was just a joke.

“If it were Miss Blackwood, some horrible little monsters would surely appear. Some of them would be so ugly to make your heart crack with shock, but no more hideous than she is...,” Dorothy replied.

“Still, I don’t know other witch except her.”

“It's not her ... I'm sure she's sleeping now,” said the other. “She’s tired all the time, probably because she is almost one hundred and five decades old,” the plump girl joked.

Then she yawned widely, ready to swallow the moon at that moment.

“Clark Brown said she might be two hundred,” Elizabeth went on.

Hearing these words Dorothy became serious.

“You know very well there is no such thing. There is no being to lives more than 100 years.”

“Yes, turtles ... some of them.”

“Anyway ...” Dorothy became snippy. “Miss Blackwood, whether she is or not two hundred years old, she’s snoring loudly now. Which we should do as well…let’s go to bed. Tomorrow is our day to clear the floors ...”

The girls stood up and dressed up as mummies in those blankets, went down into the attic bedroom. The window made a terrible creaking noise, like a train that had to brake urgently, when Miss Edwards opened it.

“Do you want the witch to come?” Dorothy frowned whispering.

The two girls came down to the room that was too crowded.

Without turning on the light, Dorothy closed the window more carefully than it was opened, very slowly, then she removed the thick woollen blankets and lay down to sleep.

The other girl did the same. The bed, although not very large, was more than enough for the two girls.

“Good night.”

“Sleep well.”

The two girls closed their eyes and started dreaming divinely, as they smiled in their sleep.

It was not easy to smile in there. All you had to do as a child was to grow to become and adult as soon as possible to face hardships of life before time. Moreover ... getting to do what a child their age should never do.

The girls fell fast asleep because they were exhausted. While they were falling asleep, in the corridor of the orphanage, near the door where they slept with the other seven girls, there was a silhouette walking.

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