The Orphan's Warning

Chapter One

Starla sat alone in the corner of her bedroom, the moon-rays entered in a long rectangular form on the cement floor of the basement. Her parents were away for the night, or to go out to the casino, she didn't know, because she didn't care. A tear fell from her cheek. "I thought they loved me?" She whimpered through her tears. Her phone's screen lit up, indicating an incoming call from Kim Hacker, the only person who talked to her when she went to Colorado Middle School three years back. Starla ignored the call, and let it ring until Kim gave up, but to her surprise her spontaneous friend, called again, and again, and then the screen dimmed. After a few minutes the screen brightened again saying: NEW MESSAGE. Starla swiftly grabbed the phone from the side table, and let the screen's brightness, engulf her face. The message was sent from Kim. Starla gave a sigh. "Damn, Kim, don't you ever know when to quit!" she opened the message board to find a 121 from her friend. With another sigh escaping her mouth, Starla listened to what her friend wanted to say.

"Hey Star... I just wanted to ask whether you want to go out for movies or something tomorrow. Its summer vacation and I hardly see you, what's going on? And now you're ignoring my calls... but I don't mind, it was just your bad day." Kim laughed. "You know, us girls have a lot of them..." Someone in the background called for Kim, and Starla heard her friend sigh. "... Guess I have to help mom with something, please contact me if you want to go to the movies or to do something differently, love you Star... bye." Starla closed the message board and threw her phone on the side table.

"Bad day, huh?" She said, as she stood up, dusting her hands off in the process. "Where are they?" Kim was roughly right about the bad day, and Kim knew about what tomorrow meant for her, and still she wanted to interfere. Starla felt something in her pocket, and searched for it, to find a photo of her mother and father, all torn and folded through. "Why did you left me?" She asked looking at her mother's warm smile. "You told me you'd protect me, well, why did you let them take me away from you?" another few tears excreted and ran down her cheeks, some made their way down her nose and then it dripped on her father's face. "I... I..." Starla struggled to say the right words towards her father, she still loved him - Why could he had done what he had done? - She asked herself simultaneously.

She folded the photo paper and put it on the side table. It was already ten o'clock, and she still hadn't eaten a single bread crumb. When she was adopted, she thought that luck had finally struck her, and that her bad luck was in the past, but in fact, her situation just got worse and worse. Her adopted parents were staying out until late, sometimes returning past twelve, and then they went to bed, leaving her without food. The Middle School she had gone to, called Mrs. McPherson once, to inform her that Starla had passed out, because of malnourishment. Starla threw her whole body weight on the hospital-like bed. The sound of the squeaky hinges made her cringe every time, because it made her feel like she was still in the Madam Dew Foster Home, where she spent four years of her life, after she had left her abused one behind, which created the snowball scar of how she got to be insecure, and isolating herself in her very own little bubble. Starla reached for her phone, and went to the call log. She hesitated a moment, her thumb reaching and then retreating to dial Kim's number. Eventually she dialled the number and the ringtone talked to her through the satellite, which would connect her call with Kim's phone. The ring went on for a long time, and Starla was ready to put the call to an end, when the ringing stopped, followed by silence.

"So... you finally had the courage to call your friend?" Kim said. "Hey Kimberly..."Starla scratched the back of her natural curled hair.

"Okay." Kim interjected. "You never call me by my real name, unless you are nervous or need someone, so what's up?"

"Kimber... Kim, I don't know what to make out of my current situation." Kim stayed silent, and Starla imagined her face in her mind's eye, a small frown mark on her forehead, with her small tight pressed lips in a pout position. Kim reminded her of the psychiatrist at her foster home, Miss Andrews, twice a week she would console Starla and let her work out a way to escape her choice of silence, alone. After a lot of rehabilitation she could communicate with many of the other castaways in Madam Dew. "It's just that my parents are so absent?"

"Absent? What do you mean by absent?" "I don't know how to put this... uh... it's not just that they are here, and I don't see them..."

"It's the part where they left you alone in the house, and went to do something they both craved for?" Kim finished her friend's sentence, which made Starla feel more worthless than she already was. "Yes Kim, exactly."

"Girl, my parents do that to me often, they go on date nights, movies or some stuff PG sixteen overrated, you know?" Starla shifted her phone to the other ear and sat on the edge of her bed. "Do they stay away for more than ten hours a day?" she asked with an eyebrow raised.

"What? Excuse... what?" Kim stammered by the words she had just heard.

"That's what I've been talking about, Kim, they are absent for more than ten hours a day." Starla sighed looking at the poor furnished room she lived in. Casted in the basement, or as Mr. and Mrs. McPherson called it, Starla's room. It felt like a shelter where animals were kept, brick walls with some posters of kittens with one particular saying, HANG IN THERE BABY.

"Hello? Star are you there?" Kim said.

Starla gripped the phone tight against her head. "Yeah, I'm still here." She sighed, "My parent's leave me here, without enough food, and now I'm starting to feel lonely too. Three summer vacations, are a long time once you add it up. Heck, its eleven months! And if it comes to and end like this, then I won't be making the movies tomorrow, because little miss me, is stuck with parents that don't want me to go anywhere."

"Star, I just got a golden idea!" Kim screamed in Starla's ear, making her friend pull the phone away from herself. "You're going to tell your stuck up parents that you are lonely..."

"Yeah." Starla interjected and gave a sarcastic laugh. "Been there, done that, and that's how I got this phone!"

"Are you done?" Kim asked after a long silence between the two friends. "When they say to you that you have a phone, you hit them back with the words: I didn't want a phone to communicate with people, I want to interact with real flesh and blood."

"Where is this heading, Kimberly?" Starla said suspicious, again with one eyebrow raised, and with the tone she said it, she also heard Kim sigh.

"Listen, after that line, you should add these words, which would pull the trigger: I want a brother, or sister. Someone to interact with, because you are so absent these days. BAM! The trigger is pulled and the shot has been fired, and the blood will flow."

"I'm not sure about the blood flowing part, but the rest sounds legit. Kim, even for a twelve year old, you are a genius."

"Yeah... you are going to miss me when we go to high..." The sound of people coming in the house, made Starla fringe, but she suddenly recognized the woman's voice as Mrs. McPherson. The high heels stepping on the wooden flooring above her head, testified it also.

"Sorry, Kim, but my parents are here, and thank you for the tip on how to overcome loneliness. Fingers crossed that they will say 'Yes'."

"Sure thing Star, good night." With that said, Starla disconnected the call, just before the basement's door open revealing a long gold-rolled cigarette holder pipped type of woman in the doorway.

"Hello, my child." Mrs. McPherson said as she switched on the bedroom's ceiling light. "For what are you sitting in the dark?" she walked down the stairs and gave Starla a big hug, with a kiss on the cheek and forehead. "How was your day?"

"Boring, and lonely..."

"That's great!" Mrs. McPherson said, jumping to her standing position. "Well, we are on our way to bed. Sweet dreams darling."

"Mom?" Starla asked Mrs. McPherson, when she was on top of the stairs again, readying herself to walk out of the basement.

"Yes?" She replied. "What about something to eat, I hadn't..."

"Oh, sweetie." Mrs. McPherson turned around, with a warm smile on her face. "We already ate, so don't you worry about a thing."

"But..."

"All lights must be out when I leave this room, okay?" Starla nodded. "Now, sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite... too hard." Mrs. McPherson winked, before she turned off the main light and closed the door.