As Sam was growing up, she started dreaming of the big world outside the inn, beyond their little village, wishing more and more to see the world and escape her life there. She loved her mother beyond words, but sometimes that was just not enough. Their life at the inn was not exactly a happy one. When Old Jim would mistreat hermother which happened pretty often, she wished she could do something about it, but she couldn’t. They needed him for food and shelter, at least that’s what her mother always said. But she couldn’t understand why her mom couldn’t get a job somewhere else. She promised herself that when she'd grow up, she'll be braver than her mother.
One day, when Sam was fourteen years old, her mother had sent her to gather some firewood from the nearby forest. Old Jim had made Sam also do some chores as she was 14 now, so she was old enough to work for her own food. She had to choose between spending the day in the kitchen and peeling the potatoes or gathering some firewood. As much as she loved eating the potatoes, she hated to peel them. SoIsabella offered to peel all the potatoes and sent Sam for the firewood as she knew that her daughter would rather spend the beautiful spring day outside than peeling the potatoes with her and Maria.
Sam took a small basket for the wood, kissed her mother's forehead, and went for the forest. She knew the road by heart, she had gone to the forest many times for firewood, but this morning everything seemed so quiet, so peaceful, so serene. A red squirrel jumped from one tree to another, looking for food or maybe just trying to find a better place to hide. Sam watched as the squirrel disappeared behind some leaves, daydreaming, thinking of the freedom the little creature enjoyed. She wished she was just as free… but she couldn’t leave her mom, her mom needed her too, just as she needed her mom. They had a special bond, they had gone through so much suffering together in that place, she could never leave her mom alone. And her