My 8 E-books written over the years by Alina Udrea - HTML preview

Chapter 1

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Angela was hungry. Again. She could feel her stomach

grumbling in pain. It was late already and the orphanage doors had long ago been closed and barred. She had to eat something or she was sure she would swoon. She got up from her bed slowly not to wake her roommate, a skinny girl of her age who in her opinion was looking worse than herself and surely needed food just as bad as her.

Rose, her roommate, was sobbing softly in her sleep. Angela

had heard her cry herself to bed hours earlier, famished and sick. They had no one in the world to care about them or about any of the other kids in the orphanage. She felt so lonely. And hungry. She would have to sneak out again and steal something to survive. The staff at the orphanage only fed them stale food and leftovers.

She put on her shabby raincoat and stepped on the old

rickety wooden floor carefully not to wake Rose. She was determined to steal enough food for both of them. If Rose didn’t get food at least, she would probably die. And then she would really be all alone. Maybe she could try to filch some medicine for Rose, too.

Angela headed for the locked door of their room with a hair

pin in her shaking hands. She really didn’t want to wake Rose, she wasn't in the mood for her scolding. Not tonight, at least. She took the hair pin and put it in the lock, then she started to handle and move it until she heard the familiar sound of the open door. She sneaked outside the room as silent as a shadow.

The orphanage was immersed in darkness. It was almost

quiet but she could hear the distant sobs of the other children

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locked in their rooms. Especially the young ones who usually went to bed hungry and beaten by the older and stronger ones who stole the little food they got from the orphanage staff. She wished she could help every wretched soul but she knew it was too much for her. So she thought she could at least help Rose. It was her way of making up for stealing so God would let her in his kingdom when it would be her time. Helping Rose was her good deed in this cruel world, the key to making it to Heaven when she died.

Angela listened for any sign of the orphanage’s headmaster,

Miss Eveline, a fat old hag who probably ate everything that was in fact destined for the children from the government. But nobody seemed to care that the children were getting skinnier and skinnier every day while the respectable Miss Eveline was getting too fat for her clothes with each passing day. She wondered where she stuffed it all. When she made sure no sound was coming from behind her door, she hurried down the corridor towards the only place she could find the pills for Rose. She was having a fever and she was very weak because of the flu and the fact that their room was dank and cold wasn't helping. She really needed the medicine but Miss Eveline, who considered herself a good Christian and who taught them about religion, didn’t deem she was worth to try saving and only saw it as a waste of good pills on a lost cause. When she last time asked for pills for Rose, she had slapped her face and told her that Rose was in God's hands now and that if He wanted, he would save her without the pills. But Angela wasn't going to wait for that. So first steal the pills and then go out and steal something to eat. That was the plan.

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She descended the creaky stairs like a cat, trying not to make

a sound. But the building was so old that it made it impossible for the flimsy stairs not to creak lightly under her weight. Angela knew where Miss Eveline kept all the medicines locked. And now it was the perfect time to take some for Rose. So she headed straight for the locked cabinet. She opened the door that led to the medical cabinet with ease but the cabinet itself was another issue. She tried picking it with her hair pin but it was in vain. And she couldn’t just break the lock or she would wake every soul in the orphanage. She needed to be smart about it. She looked around the tiny room and there it was: a tiny key sitting on the otherwise empty table in far corner of the small room. Could it be? Could she be so lucky? Hope made her cheeks redden. That might be the right key as nobody expected anyone to break the lock to the room to need to hide the cabinet key so… She stumbled over a stool and hoped nobody had heard anything, then she grabbed the key. She put it in the lock and turned it as it had fit right in. Yes!! It opened the cabinet lock! She grabbed some pain killers for Rose and stashed them in her pocket. Then she carefully locked the cabinet door again and placed the key back on the table where she had found it. She then exited the room and locked it back behind her hoping that nobody would notice a few missing pills this way.

Angela climbed the orphanage fence and jumped on the

other side. Now to find some food!

The night was cold and a drizzling rain had just started. But

her hunger was worse than the rain. So Angela started running through the rain towards the center of the town as the

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orphanage was at the outskirts of it. She knew there was a bakery downtown and as it was Friday night, the baker had made a few extra loaves of bread to sell in the morning as he usually did. He always baked more on Friday and sold the extra bread on Saturday morning. And after he would sell all the bread, he left home earlier than during the other days of the week.

She slowed her running to a walk as soon as she passed the

first houses of the small town. She sniffed the air as a gust of wind had brought a sweet smell of apple pies from some of the nearby houses. She wondered how it was that she still remembered the taste of it as she hadn't eaten a piece of apple pie in ages. But her mouth was watering at the thought. She tried to focus back on her mission, namely stealing a loaf or two and if she was lucky enough, some other goodies from the bakery without, of course, getting caught. She had done it before so it shouldn’t be a problem now. And she was never caught because she wasn't greedy. She never stole more than she needed, and she didn’t need much.

Angela took the corner towards the bakery with a lockpick

in her hand. She made sure no city guards were on site and advanced carefully under the cover of darkness. The guards were probably drinking in some pub or sleeping with their heads on the table already drunk by now. But it was always better to be careful than to be sorry. She knew what the punishment for stealing was, especially for someone from the orphanage who wouldn’t be defended by anyone, namely the judge would have her hands cut off to set her as an example. And she surely didn’t want that to happen.

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