Suicide Drain Pipe

Prologue

In a little town up north where happy feelings and orphans run amok in the summertime streets, lives appear beautiful and carefree. Poor children of all ages spend their summers begging and stealing food from rich merchants. The social divide between the rich folk and the poor is so great that, though so much is lost to the hungry hands of poor orphans, the upperclass suffers little to nothing as they continue their lavish lifestyles.

The many orphans in the town live together under bridges and in the shadows of the great mansions, together as if a family but leaving every child to themselves. Some of the older ones care for the youngsters as best they can, but it is rare to see one helping another as they themselves had to much to worry about.

The winters for the orphans are harsh times. Children huddle in corners hoping to somehow preserve body heat, but many die during the freeze and are found dead, alone, ice cold in the morning. To escape the miserable cold and bite of the freeze, rich folk heat their mansions with steam pipes and take long hot showers, letting the dirty excess water down the drain pipes and onto the streets. One mansion in particular heat their water more than the rest so that even after the water has gone through the pipes, it is still steaming hot when it reaches the street. Now in the freeze of winter, water freezes solid almost instantly, so children wishing to get warm from the water are often found frozen in ice the next morning.

One drain pipe, on those night when the cold is utterly unbearable, has blissfully warm water at the peak of the freeze and the water runs dry just after the coldest part, leaving a pond of frozen water in its wake. This pipe is called by the poor folk the "suicide drain pipe" because often when someone decides to give in to the cold and give up on life, they will sit under the wonderful hot water and enjoy those last moments of life warmth before freezing to death when the water stops.

The sad story of Marie, a little orphan child age nine, is the story I will tell. Hers is the ultimate story of despair, hope, and regret as she like many before succumbed to the escape granted by the dreaded drain pipe. Just a few nights before Marie had found her little brother huddled and alone, frozen and dead. She never imagined that she would join him so soon...