After being kicked out of her house at 16, Josephine Lewis was left to live on her own in the streets of Burmingham. Her family moved away, ashamed of what their daughter did. Shortly after, Josie was found by Polly Gray and taken in. Nearing her 18...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Josephine was an ordinary girl. She lived in a small, two-story house with her mother, father and two brothers, Jack and Louis. She was the youngest in her family and often feuded with her brothers over the smallest things, but they were never able to stay mad at each other. Josie never had a great relationship with her mother, and if she were to make any sort of mistake, her mother would always call her out for it. Her father wasn't around much, but Josie knew that she could always confide in him about her problems.
But everything changed on her 16th birthday.
Her father had told her the morning of her birthday to meet him at his workplace that night. After a day out with her friends, Josephine was excited to see what her father had planned for her.
She put on her navy blue coat and matching hat, checked herself in the mirror located in the front hallway, and stepped outside of her house. She gave small smiles to those she passed on the street, occasionally stopping to make conversation with those she recognized. Turning the corner, Josephine's friendly face slowly faded. There was a group of men in business suits huddled together outside of her fathers work. The men stared at her for a second then quickly turned their heads to continue talking. Josephine excused herself past the men and entered her father's office.
There was a long hallway connecting all of the rooms in the building. Walking quietly to a room at the end of the hallway, she heard a, "shhhhh". Curious as to what it was, Josephine shouted her father's name. She walked into the office peering around the corner to find no one. Looking around the room, Josie saw many things that were out of place, but she didn't see her father.
After a long and thorough search, she decided to leave but was stopped when someone called her name. "Josie!" She turned around to see her father standing with a cake in his hands. It sloppily read "Happy birthday Josie." Josephine rushed over to her father to hug him, when she spotted a tall, middle-aged man behind him.
"Who are you?" Josephine said with a look of confusion spread across her face.
There was a long silence until her father said quietly, "I brought you here to talk about something serious Josie." He placed the cake down on his desk and walked over to the man, patting him on the back. "This is William-"
"You can call me Will." The man stated with confidence. He was standing tall, much taller than Josie. She felt intimidated as he looked down on her.
"Anyway. This man has given me an offer, and I accepted. Next month, you are to marry him." The words stung as Josie stood staring up at the man.
"What?" Josie said meekly, the words getting stuck in the top of her throat. Holding in tears, she spoke. "How could you do this to me?"
"Come here sweetheart." Josephine's father said, outstretching both of his arms and walking toward her.
"No." She said, pushing her father away. "I trusted you. I trusted you and then you go behind my back and do this! You always told me I could be what I wanted, but it looks like you chose for me! I will not marry this old man and I will not marry a man of your choice. For god's sake, I'm only just sixteen! I can't believe you. I thought you were different from Mother, but it looks like you both are the same." Josephine broke down, with tears flowing down her face. With every blink came more. She had never felt so much emotion in one moment.
"You will not talk to me like that. I am your father! Don't even think about coming home tonight, I hope to never see you again! Leave! Get out!" Josephine was frozen in place. What had she done? What will she do? "Why are you still here! Get out!" Her father yelled pointing aggressively towards the exit.
Josie spun around slamming her shoulder into the door as she turned the bronze handle. Everything was silent, except for the sound of her black heels as she ran down the streets of Birmingham. Josephine felt like a salmon swimming upstream.
One second she was dodging the men and women walking on the sidewalk, the next, she had tripped into man. Not just one man, it was a group of men. Josie soon came to realization that these were the men from outside of her father's office.
"Hello little lady. What are you doing out here in the cold?" The oldest one of the bunch said. His voice was deep and raspy.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean-" Josie started to rise from the floor, picking up her purse and brushing herself off.
"I think we're going to need more of an apology from this one." He said to the rest of the men as they grabbed Josie who was still recovering from her fall.
"No! Get off of me!" Josie yelled as they pulled her into an alley. The older man shoved her against the wall and unbuttoned her coat, ripping some buttons off in the process. "Stop, please."
Josie could hear some of the men laughing when another man stepped in and nearly let her go. He pulled her skirt up aggressively, tearing the hem and began to pull down his trousers.
Two shots rang out. Josie felt the man in front of her fall limp in her arms. She looked around to see the first man who attacked her laying on the ground with a bullit to the head. She turned to the source of the shot, a middle-aged brunette woman holding a small pistol in her right hand. The hand that saved her. The hand that would soon save her many times in the future.
"Who are you?" Josie said shyly as she covered herself with her arms and sunk to the floor.
The woman walked over to her, outstretching a hand to help her up. "I'm Polly. Polly Gray."
