Memories Of Leyla

Chapter 2

Leyla Strauss, was nothing but phenomenal. She was my mentor and a friend. She was the beaming light that shined through my darkness. She not only saved me from the world but also saved me from myself.

When I was born my mother left me in front of an orphanage. My mother was too embarrassed to conceive a child out of wedlock. But more than that she was too afraid how the rest of the world would treat her, so she left me. At least that's what the warden of the house used to taunt me about in her most contemptuous tone. There were thirteen of us at the orphanage and somehow I was the only one who always got the short end of the stick. I was treated as a burden because the orphanage was not funded efficiently and they had just enough to provide for twelve children. The warden wasn't planning on taking in anymore helpless child but you can't really do anything when there is a newborn crying naked at your doorstep. They named me Anna because it was simple and easy to remember. I wasn't sure how to feel about my name though. I guess it was okay, after all I needed people to address me with something, might as well just be Anna. Nothing felt as if it was my own not even the name I was given. I felt hollow and alone.

There were twelve beds in total so I had to sleep on the floor each night without a pillow under my head or a blanket over my body. The cold cement floor kept me awake all night until my body was used to the shivering cold allowing me to fall asleep even if it was just for a little while. It was especially unbearable during heavy rainfall as tiny droplets of water dripped on my head down to my face through the cracks of the ceiling. Even if I had shifted to the other side, the cement floor would become wet enough making it close to impossible for me to endure the extraordinarily cold damp floor.
My days were as dreadful as my nights were. I was given one meal a day or else there would not have been enough ration to go around. My stomach would ache in hunger and yet I had to appease my striking appetite with few glasses of water. There were times  when I had to survive several days on small pieces of bread as the orphanage needed to adjust their daily budget to buy medicine for some of the children who had fallen ill. One might think that such neglect would effect my health the most but surprising as it is, it never did, except the one or two times when I had caught a cold.