Contests: One-Shots

#1 Born To Run

For Brenda & Skye's Monthly Contests
Contest #1

It was a dark and stormy night… There was a soft body lying in the upstairs room on bed number six. Madelyn lay awake, twiddling her little fingers around a golden heart shaped locket around her neck whilst thinking about her plan until she heard the breakfast bell ring out in the early hours of the morning.

She went down to breakfast to the same stale piece of bread sitting in the same spot beside the open window which the matron insisted stay open as the cold wind blew through the orphanage. Madelyn slipped her piece of bread into her worn muddy brown dressing gown pocket and went upstairs to do her chores. When she had changed into her thrice repaired blue and white chequered pinafore dress with a dirty, scratchy once white blouse, she made her way back down the creaky stairs.

They were all huddled downstairs in a row facing towards the front of the old stage where Miss Marple, the matron, stood, her pointy nose looking pointier than ever. “Madleyn, you can do the shopping today,” yelled Miss Marple through her white teeth with holes in them. “The guard dogs will be going with you.” Miss Marple opened the door to freedom and Madelyn made her way to the Baker's shop. The guard dogs closely walking and panting behind her. She could smell the fresh bread and wondered what it would taste like fresh.

“No dogs inside!” came the baker's voice. “Oops, sorry,” Madelyn said as she gladly tied them up outside.

“Is there a bathroom anywhere?” Madelyn asked “To the left,” the baker said. “Thanks,” she added going towards the bathroom. Once there, she slipped out the back door into the alley. 

Madelyn started running towards the Orphanage. Her best friend Jasmine was out gardening. “Run!!” yelled Madelyn as both dogs broke free from their chains and barked furiously behind them. Madelyn threw them her piece of stale bread she had saved in her pocket and they stopped just long enough for Jasmine to climb the big fence and run down the street with Madelyn.

Reaching a rusty and peeling green painted iron fence that surrounded the steps to the underground railway station, Madelyn squeaked with delight as a thought came to her mind; they would hop into the baggage cart and ride to a new city, where they would no longer have to undergo the strict regimes of Miss Marple.

Hours later, they arrived in London, the streets were dirty and filled with many stallholders selling various things. They wondered past unoticed and soon came to beautiful house with a white picket fence around it. “This looks familiar,” said Madelyn. I must have dreamt this when I daydream about the village girls wearing their rich silk clothes and living in nice homes.

“Let’s go inside,” said Jasmine. So they rang the doorbell and a lovely lady came out and invited them in. They sat on her velvet couch and told the kind lady their sad story. As they were doing that, Madelyn saw a blue stuffed bunny sitting on a chair. “I had one just like that when I was young,” said Madelyn. "Hey, so did I,” said Jasmine. The kind lady looked at the girls with tears in her eyes and said, "I have found my two little girls that were taken away from me when they were babies. Please stay with me and I will love you and care for you both." The girls were so excited because they had found their mother, and because they were not only best friends but they were also sisters.

Years later, the two girls are sitting at the bedside of their frail mother and a alarming shade now takes over her face and body. Her once sea-coloured blue sparkling eyes now appear lifeless and empty. She can barely speak and even when she can muster enough strength, her words go unclear as though carried off by a gust of wind. Tears now creep out from their eyes and roll slowly down to my cheeks. How hard it is to find the right words to say to their mother. Can she even hear them now? Can she even feel their presence as they strongly clutch hold of her weakened hands as their father is standing to one side of the room with the local physician, ranting at him for not being able to help or do anything to stop this.

Then the sound of a deep breath and they look towards their mother.

'...She is gone.... I know it....' Madelyn thought as she glanced around the confines of her room, in search of hope that their father and the local doctor can give but there is none to be found. The look on their faces do nothing but confirm my fears.
I have never heard or seen my father cry before so it came as somewhat of a shock when he knelt down at her side and lowered his head on her lifeless body and burst out into tears.
A few moments later he cleared his throat and shook his head as though he was trying to get the sound of an irritating fly away from him, he then stood up and walked out of the room not saying a single word as the physician folds her hands neatly.

So we are left alone and yet I am not afraid, I stay sitting at her bedside , I glare at her face, still disbelieving that she is truly gone and that at any moment she would awaken from her long and cold slumber and this is all but a dream. But this is not so; she has gone.. never to wake.. never to call out our names with a loving smile on her lips and glimmer in her eyes...
I close my eyes and I clasp my hands tightly together and I pray that the lord will look after her and make her an angel.

The End.