Mid afternoon, the streets were filled with people.
Evangeline could not understand where all the people came from; there were crowds bustling down the street, filling each side. However, the people didn’t necessarily look “happy,” they all looked like they meant nothing but business.
She couldn’t find a single person who had a smile on their face.
Evangeline stuck close to the wall, keeping herself as far from the crowds as she possibly could. The air smelled heavy of car exhaust, which was a smell Evangeline had quickly grown to dislike.
All around her, the people were searching aimlessly for work.
Some had travelled from the rural areas, having heard that there was work in the city. But they were wrong. Work seemed to simply not exist here; there seemed to be more people on the sides, begging for money, than there were people who looked pleased with their life.
Evangeline paused when she saw a man across the particular street she stood at; he was playing a trumpet, a melody she did not recognize. He had his hat sitting on the ground in front o of him. He was evidently playing for tips.
Evangeline wondered if he had even gotten any tips yet.
It looked like nobody was stopping to put any feedback for his work. To Evangeline, his trumpet playing was marvelous. His upper body seemed to move with the music, and his eyes were clenched closed in musical passion. The teenage girl could tell that he was quite literally pouring his entire soul into playing.
So she stood on the edge of the street, waiting for the right moment to pass. There weren’t many cars, since there was more people, but she hurried across it, growing closer to the trumpet player as she rummaged quickly through her pouch of necklaces.
The crowds had cleared around the trumpet player, and only a few people had stopped to watch him before moving on. Evangeline paused to the left of him before bending down and tossing two of her necklaces quietly into his hat, hoping that he would understand their worth and sell them rather than wonder why she gave him two pieces of jewelry.
After that, Evangeline continued moving on through the bustling yet depressing city and its everyday life. She clutched her pouch close to her chest, afraid she would drop it somehow, or someone would snatch it out of her grasp if she didn’t hold it firmly enough. She also reminded her that she had to watch how many necklaces she gave out because these remaining necklaces were all she had to live on until she found her mother.
If she found her mother.
However, as Evangeline had crossed two more blocks, she noticed something strange happening behind her.
She was being followed.
She took one sparing glance to find two men wearing shady clothing walking behind her. She had a sudden feeling that made her want to shiver. There was something off about those men, something that told her something was amiss.
