Time of the Endowed **BEING REWRITTEN**

Dream Away

She remembered her day. It was like every other day.

The morning had begun mundanely. The grey light entered the room, bare of anything except for cracked walls and creaky bunk beds. The younger children had run out to play in the yard, full of weeds and bugs.

What had she done? Sulked inside until she was forced to go outside.

"For the vitamin D, darling. God knows you need it," the matron had chastised her. The matron was a wrinkly old woman whose favorite pastime was to use her gift of judgement on others.

It was dreary, maybe it would rain soon. She couldn't get her hopes high, though. She was still an orphan.

Orphans weren't allowed to have happiness.

Ainura lived a very uneventful life. Nothing had happened to her. Except when a young couple  had come to adopt her a few years ago. Ainura had thought them to be fine people. That was, until they adopted the first infant they saw when they walked in, loudly professing how cute the baby was. She could still hear their coos in her nightmares.

It didn't hurt to dream. But that was all she did.

"Dream away," the older girls taunted. She wanted to taunt back, but matron had warned her that it would lessen her chances of being adopted if she misbehaved.

She'd read all of the books in the creaky building, even the newspaper. God, someone had to be miserable to read the newspaper. She had never left the building, but she knew the town she lived in was boring. Nothing ever happened. Surely, she was the most miserable child in the orphanage. Even young Timmy had told her that. Of course, she hadn't believed him. Not right away, anyway. But he did have a fair point. Her existence so far was quite miserable.

She had been placed in the orphanage at a young age. Too young to remember. It had been a lonely fifteen years, and she knew her birthday would be coming up. There wouldn't be much celebration, maybe an extra portion of oatmeal. She never looked forward to it. What was there to celebrate? The decreased chances of being adopted? No thank you.

She used to want to be adopted, but she had long let go of those dreams. Maybe she would be rescued by adoptive parents one day. They were only dreams, of course.

"Dream away," she whispered to herself.