Jezzabel

Prologue - Paula

Prologue

Date: 25th January 1996

Place: Canterbury, Kent, UK

Weather: Cold, Windy, Rainy. Crap.

In the early hours of the 25th of January 1996 the whole house was woken up by the sound of a loud banging at the door. Myself and Joey, a member of my staff, took a torch and a frying pan and began unlocking the many dead bolts of the main doors. The rain was heavy and falling in sheets, every so often a blinding flash of lightning lit up the black sky. We could not think of anyone who would voluntarily be out in this sort of weather.

We wrenched the old, heavy door open and stood ready for someone to attack or jump out at us. But there was no one there, I sighed and began closing the door.

“Wait,” Joey put her hand on the door to stop it, “I heard a kid crying out there.” I opened the door again and stuck my head out into the rain. There was still nothing, I began to bring my head in when I spotted a movement on the door step. I crouched down and looked. There was a white waterlogged bundle left heaped on the door step. I poked it, the bundle moved. Gaping I picked up the bundle and brought in inside.

“What the hell is that?” Joey was confused. I moved the swales of sopping blanket around until a small red-ish nose peaked out. “Shit. Who’d live their kid out in that at this time of night?” I smiled grimly and carried the kid into the kitchen where the radiators were clacking to life on their timer.

I put the kid on the table and began peeling the swathes of blanket from it’s now shivering body. It was a girl. She sneezed and was pinky-red in the face. Dressed in only a pale pink dress she was very cold.

“Joe, get me a spare babygrow, yeah, and a thick blanket.” Joey left the room. I began cooing at the tiny girl, stroking her cold face with a finger. She giggled as Joey came back in the room. “Oh yeah get me a towel too.” She sighed at me and left the room a second time. I had begun unzipping her dress and shimmying her out of it by the time Joey returned again. She threw the towel over the table at me, which I caught and began towel drying the baby.

Once she was dry I dressed her in a baby grow, and wrapped the blanket around her. When I looked at the time it was nearly 6, in half an hour I would begin waking up the rest of the children. Joey wadded the white blanket and was about to throw it in the washing basket when she heard a rustling from in the blanket. She searched through the sodden mess until she pulled out a folded piece of card. Tossing the blanket into the washing basket she came back to the table, unfolding the card. She read it aloud,

Dear who takes my baby,

I know that it was irresponsible of me to leave my daughter on your doorstep at this hour in this weather, but I had no other choice.

Please, call her Poppy- Sue Ream. Her real name is Jezzabel Jeckson, but she must never know.

In entrusting you with Jez I may be putting you in danger but I had no other option, I wish no harm to befall to her.

Do not tell her I am still alive, I don’t want to bring her false hope that one day I may come back for her, because I do not know, and because if she were to know she would be in worse peril than she would’ve been had I kept her with me.

Once she adopts her new name she will be protected, but if she ever finds out who she really is, there will be people after her, bad people.

I wish I could be there to see her grow up, but alas I cannot.

Look after my baby.

Please.

“Well, blow me down and call me a picket fence. That's a strange letter if ever I heard one.” I leant back in my chair. “I supposed we’d better get her on file as what was it? Poppy-Sue!” Joey nodded and went to the filing cabinet we had stored in the dining area. She pulled out a blank file and began filling in the new form. “We’ll call the social at 10 and see if we can keep hold of her. Oh and we’ll call the doctor in as soon as the surgery is open, we need to get her checked over and assessed, seeing as she’s had a cold night.” Joey nodded and went back to filling in her form.

***

I am Paula Nickels. I am head care worker at an orphanage in Canterbury, and this is the story of Poppy-Sue Ream, otherwise called Jezzabel Jeckson. As from her view.

Welcome to the eyes of a fifteen year old girl. Who doesn't know who she really is.