The 7 year old Oscar 'Ozzy' is forced to live with a strict fostermother. Ozzy needs to take care of himself most of the time, because his foster mother only lets him inside if he brings money with him. One day he meets, Alfie Solomons. Who takes hi...
(Oscar's P.O.V) I walk out of the police station and turn left towards home. While making my way home, I spot the window maker. I walk up to him. "I'm here to get my money" I tell him and he turns around. "Ah, it's you. I was wondering what that smell was" he states before turning around and continue tying a window to his cart. "Well? Are you going to give me the money? Because I'm waiting" I ask him with irritation. The man scoffs and turn to me "then you can wait very long, boy. Because you are not getting anything from me" the window maker replies. "1 quid for every broken window" I tell him and put my hands on my hips, "I get 7 quid because I broke 7 windows". "Yes. You broke them. No one said anything about breaking them, you needed to find them" he explained . "Are you kidding?! I spent one night in jail for that" I snap at him. "That's what you deserve. No get out of here!" he yelled pointing a finger behind me indicating I needed to leave. I watch as the man walks off with his cart filled with windowpains. I follow him untill I decide to run into an alleyway that lead to the main street and run along it. I hide behind a horse and wagon filled with metal for the factory as the windowmaker comes walking onto mainstreet. As he arrives closer I bend down to make a snowball before deciding to throw it at him. It hits him square in the face and he falls down. "You can stick your money up your arse" I yell at him before running away.
I walk up the stairs towards Mrs Gimlets appartment. As I get closer, I can hear laughter and chatter. "Look what the cat dragged in" Mrs Gimlet said as she spotss me. Beside her was a man, probably the one who owned all the silver forks and knifes that needed polishing. "It's cold outside so I thought-" I began but she cutt me off, "do you have money?". "That's a long story" I tell her, "Its a yes or no question" she sneers. I shrugg my shoulders "I don't have anything". She realizes I have something in my pocket and asks about it. "Show it" she orders and waves her hand. I sigh an pull out the wheat bun that I had stolen from the bakery, out my pocket to show her. "Yes, give that to me" she said and takes it away from me, "thats mine" I exclaim loudly, "you are really good for nothing. Your mother saw that right when she left you here as a baby. Tonight you can stay here. But tomorrow, you are not coming back in" she tells me before shooing me off to my bed. I lay in bed while listening to Mrs Gimlet and the man."why don't you let him polish?" he asked, "with his little fingers he can really get into the smaler places". "You don't think I tried that before" Mrs Gimlet scoffs. "I need to find a way to get rid off him. If I knew that his mother would never let something hear from her again. Then I wouldn't have taken him in. Especially now that she's dead" she explains, "does he have a father?" the man asked. "Don't know. The mother didn't say anything about him. Doubt he wants a kid like him anyways".
The next day I try and find a way to make some money. During my search, William my friend, joins me. He got the brilliant idea to steal some newspapers and sell them by the trainstation. After a half day we made some money and we split it. I go back home but when I arrive I look on with curiosity when a lot of tennants are gathered in the hallway. They all talk amongst themselves and look towards the door with number 404. My feet instantly move and take me up the flight of stairs into Mrs Gimlet house. I walk inside and see a nurse filling a bowl with water by the sink. I make my way towards Mrs Gimlets bedroom and freeze. She is lying on her bed, bruises and cuts covering her face. A doctor hovered over her while expecting her. I walk inside and he notices me. "Is this your mother?" he asks pointing at her. I nodd for a yes but then correct myself shaking my head for a no. Apparently she had fallen down the flight of stairs and broken her back and spinal cord. She was having trouble breathing because of it. I was told that it was to late for surgery and she wouldn't make it for much longer. I was sitting by the dinner table and looked towards her bedroom. The door was open and I could see a nurse cool her down with a wet cloth. "Go away" she told the nurse, "Oscar needs to come here". The nurse obeyed and walked out the room. I slowly made my way to the bed. I grabbed the money that I had earned and carefully put it down on the bedside table. "For you, Mrs Gimlet" I told her softly before squatting down beside the bed. "You shouldn't cry, my boy" she said out of breath, "I don't deserve that. I wasn't kind to you". Eventhough she was stern and demanded a lot from me, I could understand why she was. I am not an easy child to say the least. But she always took care of me. "And now it's to late for me", "no, Mrs Gimlet" I beg her and grab her hand. She shushes me like a mother would consoling her child that got hurt. "I need to give you something" she tells me and points to her closet. I walk over and grab the box from inside the closet before walking back to Mrs Gimlet. "It's from your mother" she explains. She told me that she doesn't know a lot about my mother, only that she was young when she got me and that she couldnt take care of me. Unmarried and getting a child is shamefull as well. She pointed to the necklace. I opened it and saw two small photo. One of a man in uniform and one of a female in a dress. "The lady is your mother, the one who brought you here" she explained. "That is your father I don't know anything about him" Mrs Gimlet explained and pointed at the small photo. "I only know that his name is Thomas because of the photo" she said and points to the name.
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Somehow the man looked familiar, but I didn't know why. "So keep that in mind if you ever loose the necklace" she orders me softly. "Because when you are a bit older. You are going to find him". I look up from the photo. "I don't want him. I want you!" I cried out. "Oh my child" she cried out as well and caresses my cheek, "forgive me... Forgive me please".
I watch as Mrs Gimlet's coffin is placed onto the funeral wagon before it is pulled out of the street. I was truly, alone. Thankfully, William's mother is a kind person and let me stay. William has three sisters and two other brothers, making the house filled with eight people. Nine if you include me now. I keep quiet as Will's mother served us dinner. One potatoe for everyone, but two for the father. Will and his brother's and sister's all complained. "We always eat the same", "why does Vivian get a bigger one?", "you got the bigger one last night!", "mom, can I have more?", "why does dad get more?". The father looked around the table with annoyence on his face before slamming his fist on the table "enough!" his voice booms through the house, "do you have any idea how hard I need to work for the Shelby's?". Every child keeps quiet before they got told to eat.
As I lay in bed, cramped between Will and his youngest brother. I can hear his parents talking. The father clearly didn't want me here. "What was I supposed to do? He doesn't have anyone else". "How sad that may be. We cannot afford to feed another mouth" the father explains. "I have eight mouths to feed. I can't have another". "Henry it is almost Christmas. Don't you have a heart?" the mother asks, "yes. For my own children. Not for that boy". So I decided to leave on my own, instead of getting told to leave in the morning.
