Chapter 1 Lelo’s Life
In the year 2000, I have officially been in this dumpy old house for 12 years. Apparently, I was found on the door step of the building with a note on my belly saying;
To whom gets this letter first,
This is Lelo. Please take care of my precious 5 month old
baby. I am very sick and have no one else to turn to. I am
worried she will become very sick like me.
Love you loads my precious one,
From your loving mummy xxx
P.S. I have left you one of my most favourite processions.
If you wear it all the time close to your chest, I will
be with you closer than you think.
The nun who found me that day Sister Featherbone (but she prefers it if I call her mum). She has raised me, fed me, dressed me and taught me the world’s beauty. We both know nothing of my mother, I wish not to anyway. A mother who ditches her own daughter and doesn’t leave a name or address in the note must be bad news! But we don’t talk about my ‘mysterious mother’ a lot. She is something of the past.
There was no mention of a father of mine. I bet he was just as ignorant as she was. I really shouldn’t say bad stuff about people I hardly know. My Mother, or Sister Featherbone, has taught me to be on my best and most polite nature 24/7, though inside I am very strong and have an adventurous nature.
The huge house I live in with Mother has about five hundred rooms! Well, not exactly five hundred rooms, I’m just exaggerating. I’m allowed in all of them except the Attic. It is fully forbidden. If I was ever to even blow into the room, I would not be allowed to eat or drink for the rest of my life. Mother would never like to be so cruel to me, but she has no choice. For you see;
When Mother was 8, her own mother went into the attic just to see if we had any light bulbs. Mother said she was told to wait there and she did but for hour after hour. Then after 6 hours of waiting, she decided to call the police (Mother was taught at a very young age how to get help for emergencies). When the police officer arrived, they found that she wasn’t in there. The police asked Mother if she came out at all. Mother shook her head. And she was never seen again. Mother said that her own mother was wearing a necklace, just like mine. And she is too scared to lose me.
That’s why I have no family except Mother. She never got married and never knew her own dad, her own mother disappeared and now we live all alone in Lyon, a country up in France.
Now, to tell you a bit about my self; I have dark chocolate coloured hair that is silky long and wavy, but not curly. Mother says I have beautiful venom green eyes that shine out the most about me and creamy coloured, soft and smooth skin that is finer then the smoothest and nicest silk in the world. I have big red lips that are to die for. I don’t think Mother is telling the truth, but she says that I would be famous for my features. The necklace that my mysterious mother gave to me is a snake, curled up and is made of green jade. I’ve never taken it off and Mother says it goes very well with my venom green eyes.
On Friday the third of November, on a sunny, breezy day with the bees buzzing and the grass whispering underneath my feet, Mother was gardening out the front when I was bored and did something I shouldn’t have done. I entered my death and faced the fact that I will never get respect from my Mother ever again. I entered…the Attic.
