AshZelly

At 6 I was orphaned when my parents were devoured by a voracious hoard of hedgehogs which had been living in the diamond mine where they had been working. I took sole responsibility for my sister, Constantine, who was 4 years my junior. Clad in dresses I sewed together from used tea-bags we begged on the streets of Istanbul. Constantine succumbed to diphtheria and languished shortly before her 3rd birthday. While mourning I wandered the streets drunk on cherry wine (which is the only kind they will sell to 7 year-olds there). A month later I awoke at Ms. Tilly's Finishing School for chronically misbehaved and slovenly girls. Apparently I had been kidnapped by a pack of traveling bandits who hoped to sell my hair as spun platinum rope, only to their disappointment, my matted braids were far too filthy to regain their former luster. They left me on door stop of my new home with a short apology which summarized the events of the past several weeks and brass locket with a dull ruby inside, their reason for doing so mystified me. I spent the following years sleeping under the rotting shingles of the school. My only friend was another orphan, a mute, who was called May, and a large rat I shared my stale tea biscuits with. The three of us would play checkers with broken buttons and thimbles in a crawl space Ms. Tilly was unaware of. When I was released, on my 18th birthday, I vowed to return for my friends and to expose the cruelties perpetuated within the stone confines of the school. I went to the local authorities who were unsympathetic to my distress and I was thrown onto the cobblestone curb that hugged the parameter of the station. My dented brass locket broke split in two and the my ruby fell into a deep crack just beyond my desperate outreached arms . I wailed; the loss of my treasured yet worthless dull ruby bestowed upon me a clarity on the unfortunate situation I had found my self in. I choked on bitter tears and felt the bruises form under my knees and palms, which felt cemented to the cold grey ground beneath them. Then something beyond me sparkled; it was the ruby. After years of bouncing around inside the locket, after being continuously hit against brass walls durig turbulent travels, the ruby burst from its dull cage as a polished deep red jewel. The shadow of a tall horse mounted man spilled across the ground in front of me obscuring my gaze. He lifted me up and asked me to share my story. A look of astonishment washed over his face... he was the youngest of the bandits. He explained that he had been kidnapped as I had, but was assimilated into the group when his lock-picking skills proved useful (most orphans are exceptionally resourceful and good to have around in a bind). He apparently had grown very fond of me during my drunken stay amongst the pack. In an attempt to protect me from the horrors party to a thief's life he left me at the school. His last gesture before leaving me there was to put his locket around my neck. Inside the locket dull ruby; a promise. After a life of trials and adventures the bandit had acquired wealth and knowledge. He had returned to rescue me as a polished suiter, barely related to the person he was 10 years earlier. He had abandoned his life of crime, but was still able to call upon his former associates who liberated the prisoners of Ms. Tilly's. awful school. I heard that May and the rat became pirates who travel around the world freeing children from orphanages. As for me and my bandit? I kissed him softly on hiss eyelids and said goodbye so that I could keep my happy ending.