Tomorrow Will Be Better

The Orphan

 The month of December in Hanau, Germany was always quite lively. The usually serene and stagnant town now bustled with activity and became decorated with enchanting strings of paper lanterns and large red bows tied to the towering lampposts. It's quite close to something out of a storybook, was the thought Lilli had always had about it.

On a night like this, though, where the air was so frozen that the snowflakes fell thick and slow, and the dark of the night was so suffocating that one could only make out a figure with great concentration, the girl with bare soles and frozen hands headed towards the lit and busy streets.

She frequented this area quite often when she was younger, but she had never come here alone before. Everything about the town that should have been inviting and appealing was now intimidating and the familiar streets were strange and foreign to her memory.

Lilli would not be here if she had only done her duties properly at the boarding house: Scrub, rinse, mop, swab. She could hear the landlady in her mind with the switch ready in hand:

"Repeat, girl!"

Scrub, rinse, mop, swab. She performed these duties barefooted so as to not ruin her only pair of slippers, tattered as they may be.

Lilli was always as precise as she possibly could be when cleaning, but today she had no mop to finish the job with. She looked all over the house for one all the while water soaked into the floorboards. The furious landlady denied her a meal for the day and the other girls in the house had to be made the ones to complete her chores for the night.

The other girls glared hatefully at Lilli for adding to their workload and before the blonde girl could apologize profusely for her error she was shoved out into the frosty night with a bundle of matches crowded into her frayed apron pocket.

"Now you don't even think of coming back here until all of those matches have been sold," the landlady spat. Lilli was distressed when the door slammed shut and left her alone and exposed outside without her slippers and no warm clothing.

It was not as if Lilli was ungrateful! She had tried her very hardest to like the boarding house in spite of all the meanness, cruelty, and unhappiness- it was the only home she had now! Even if she and the other girls faced corporal punishment at the landlady's hands, even if she was often suckered into taking on extra chores by her peers—even if the food was cold and barely enough to satisfy her—!

She sniffled and began the trek into town.

"Matches! Would anyone please buy some matches," she cried out with her cracking voice, but it was almost futile. Every time she attempted to grab the attention of a pedestrian or a patron exiting a shop, she was avoided by those averting their eyes to continue walking with bulging brown paper bags clutched in their arms.

By now she was sure everyone back at the boarding house was finished with their meals and preparing for slumber. Not a single match had been sold.

Lilli knew how her old self would react in this situation; with tears and defeat. Yes, it seemed so long ago... when she would allow herself to weep until the problem was resolved. She didn't completely know what had changed inside her to where she no longer cried anymore.

She supposed it could be since...

She unconsciously touched her fingertips to the ribbon she always kept firmly tied in her hair.

Big Brother...!

She distracted her thoughts, "Matches!"

Her skin was turning blue and her face was raw with splotches of pink. Her legs were now so numb from the cold that the blood in her veins was the warmest sensation she could feel.