Just a Girl

Prologue

Prologue

         Winnie walked in door, running late for dinner. She was working for the rich, getting their groceries for them. Her mom was sitting in the kitchen, washing the dishes in their brown wooden bucket. Her face looked strained and filled with worry. Winnie’s mother and father were out of jobs, so she was the only one bringing in money.

         “Winnie!” Her mother called, her reddish brown curls bouncing as she walked over to her. Winnie had her mom’s blue eyes. “You are home already? What time is it? Well either way, dinner is almost ready.” Winnie uncovered the bread that was in her arms. It was still warm. Tears came to her mother’s eyes and she pulled Winnie into a hug.

          She walked into the kitchen, setting the bread on the table and resuming her mother’s work with the dishes. She saw her mother go into the other room, where her father was. Silent tears rolled down her mother’s face and her father comforted her.

           ‘Why was mother crying?’ Winnie asked herself, but went back to washing the dishes, being careful that she didn’t get caught ‘spying.’

           Dinner came around, and she set the table and served the food. She poured a very thin soup into the bowls, and sat down in her usual seat. Dinner was not a time to talk, which was just an unsaid rule. But tonight was different. Winnie’s parents kept exchanging glances that Winnie could not comprehend. They both kept grabbing her hand and squeezing it the second she put it on the table. They had sorrowful looks.

         “Ok, what is going on?” Winnie said rudely, letting all her frustration out.

         “Sweetheart, what would you think would be wrong?” Her mother answered, her voice filled with love.

          “You two keep exchanging strange looks and-” she stopped herself before she admitted to seeing mother cry in the other room.

           “Oh, honey, there is nothing to worry about I promise,” Her father said, but it didn’t make Winnie relax in the slightest. If you could have summed up Winnie’s family, it was that perfect family that everyone was jealous of. They didn’t have money to go out and buy extravagant things, but they had something a lot of other families didn’t have, and that was love.

            Once everyone was finished, she cleaned up the dishes and began to wash them. The sun had fully set and night had fallen, so she decided to retire to her room.

          “Goodnight!” Winnie said, giving her mother and father a big hug. “I love you,”

           “I love you too.” They answered in unison.

           Winnie turned the corner that led to her room, but stopped when she heard her parents talking. It wasn’t like her to eavesdrop, but her parents left her no choice.

         “Honey, I think she knows,” Winnie heard her mother’s voice.

        “She couldn’t possibly. Everything is going to be ok, though, that I can promise you.”

        “No, hon, it is not. We are-are-” Winnie’s mother couldn’t finish the sentence. Of course the sentence Winnie needed to hear the most was the one that wasn’t said.

        “I know. We have to make the best of it and stay strong, ok? I realize today is not going to be overly fun, but we raised our daughter well. Nobody can take that from us.” Her father’s words were encouraging.

         She heard them walking towards their bedroom, so she got in her bed as quickly as she could. Her room was rather small, just like her house. She covered herself with the blanket her mother made her, and tried to fall asleep, just wanting tomorrow to be over.

A/N I hope that you enjoyed this! It only gets better!