Birth Right

Help from an Unexpected Place

Chapter 6

               I seemed to be in a mixed state of consciousness. I couldn’t seem to find the energy to open my eyes. I could hear the commotion around me. I was still face down. I could feel the cold rough surface of the path underneath me. I wondered if I was dying. I wondered if this was the end. I wondered if anyone would actually care if I died and who would turn up to my funeral. Not many.  I waited for myself to drift off into the embrace of death but it never came.

                Not long after I fell, I began to hear the mumbling of voices slowly getting louder. I could sense the crowd begin to form around me. I heard the mix of thoughts, those of worry and care but then those of scrutiny. To them all they saw was this small person with a hoodie, some tracksuit bottoms and trainers. All of which were dirty and tattered. They all expected me to be some boy out of his head on alcohol and drugs that had happened to stumble into the park. How stereotypical of modern day youth in Britain.

                One thought particularly amused me. Oh my God. Look at that. There should be barriers to stop trash like that getting into such an area. No one better go near they might get robbed or something.

                It was a pompous old lady with her little Yorkshire terrier in hand. How highly she thought of herself.

                That was when I heard the voice of two people. A man and women from what I could make out.

                “Don’t just stand there. Has someone called an ambulance?” She demanded to the crowd but the crowd gave no reply, “Call an ambulance please Mark.”

                “I already am Louise,” He replied.

I heard footsteps and the scuffling as someone knelt beside me. Very carefully I felt them delicately place a hand on my shoulder and waist. They rolled me over so I now felt myself lay on my back. I tried to open my eyes but it was just too much energy. I heard talking. It was the man from before.

                “Hello. Can I have an ambulance please. We found someone collapsed…” I couldn’t make out the rest of the phone call.

                That was when I felt a hand carefully slip under the back of my neck which was used to lift my head up. I felt my hood get pulled down revealing my face. My head was placed back down against the floor. I heard the shock of the crowd. They hadn’t expected a girl. They hadn’t expected her to look ghostly white and so thin her cheek bones looked as if they were about to break out of the skin. I was shocked at seeing myself through somebody else’s perception. I had truly let myself go into disrepair. I couldn’t remember the last time I had eaten. I read their minds. They hadn’t expected it to be only a child.

                “Oh my god. That is Alexandria Burton. Remember that child that ran from the care home about 4 months ago,” I heard this women shout, from some distance away.

                “Hello, Alexandria. Can you open your eyes?” I heard the women holding me say.