Birds With Broken Wings

PART 1/ A Girl With No Name*

PROLOGUE

She was standing outside the house, the space she grew up in, the worn-out grey teddy bear clutched tightly in her hands.

It was difficult for her, for her eight-year-old brain, to comprehend what exactly she was feeling but it was close to a booming feeling of hope, of love, of belongingness.

She was finally going to get home, she was finally going to be like all those girls she had always envied; the girls she had always seen on TVs; the girls in big houses with big beds, the girls that stayed at the back of their parents' cars whenever their parents drive here during the festive periods to give away foods and drinks and provisions.

And worn-out clothes that we're always quick to become their new best, their Christmas clothes.

The familiar squish sound of an approaching foot, swiftly punctuated by a click-click sound of heels distracted her attention from staring into nothingness and she found herself turning towards the direction to see that short middle-aged woman they all referred to as the matron and the other woman, the tall one in a well-tailored short gown and a shoe so high and penciled, walking out of the building and approaching her where she stood.

Her heart skipped, two, three painful beats.

She had gone through all the formalities that come with processes like this, the talk with the matron, the lecture on how she was to be a good girl always, make the new woman love her so she wouldn't be the first person to be returned to the orphanage.

Just like she was the last to leave out of all the kids she had grown up with.

She wasn't even going to gamble on it. She had lived her whole life for this. She had always longed for a home, a family, a mother, and now that she was going to get all of that.

Finally.

She was never going to ruin that.

She knew what was to come next; she had seen it happen each time a new kid, especially the ones that joined the orphanage after she get adopted. She had always watched with keen eyes from the playground that overlooked the entrance of the orphanage as all the newer kids get adopted while wondering what exactly was wrong with her; why the new parents weren't even paying any attention to her, why they were always going for someone else.

No matter how much she put on her best behavior whenever they were being examined, how she always smiled more, how she always desperately tried not to appear pitiable or pathetic; tried not to show that she was hungry and that the worms were making a good feast out of her stomach. She always tried to look her best but in the end, they always end up going for someone else.

For another kid.

This woman was a first.

So when the woman, the one with art for a face stood down beside her so they could be of the same height for the picture that was tradition for the orphanage; for the kid that was being adopted to take a picture with her new family right in front of the orphanage so the name is written at the entrance of the orphanage will show in the picture, she smiled brightly.

She flashed all her teeth with all the missing ones so she could be her best, look her best in what was going to be her last memory of this place.

And besides, she wanted to be her best, look her best and be perfect for this woman that reeked of absolute perfection and divineness.

She couldn't risk being returned before she even made it out of here, with bugs-infested flatbeds and watery beans filled with weevils as superfoods.

She just wanted out.

Wanted out from waking up to the smell of urine from the smaller kids, from the smell of urine and hunger that were perfectly etched in the four walls of the orphanage, from going to bed hungry and waking up hungry, from drinking too much water just to stay full.

She wanted out from all of that.

"Let's go now, to your new house." The woman, her new mother, her mother-to-be whispered calmly to her ears and she felt herself swoon at even her voice; it was a voice that sounded like it has never known hunger and she couldn't want for hers to sound like that too.

"Your new house," Her mother repeated as she stood up to her feet and she held out a hand for her to grab.

She grabbed it and they both walked towards the exquisite car that was parked behind the gates.

She was finally getting a mom, a house, a family.

And everything good.

Or everything bad.

Depending on what the author of her life has in store for her 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

How did this introductory part make you feel?

And have you ever been to an orphanage? How did you feel then?

I cried myself to sleep the first time I visited an orphanage and it made me really more grateful that I have a family.

See you in the first chapter where the book officially starts ❤💃