The Story of a News Girl

The Girl with Braids

Clarisse Johnson is a small and shy little four year old, who only ever found comfort in her family. Mostly her mother since her father and brother were always in the factory, while they worked in a dress shop. Her mother - Charlotte - would be sewing whatever was given to her that day, and Claire would be picking up the scrap fabric, ribbon, thread, buttons, and anything else that had fallen to the floor. She'd also sweep the floors with a broom that was bigger than her. It wasn't easy on the little four year old, sure, but at least it earned her some money. And it was better than being inside a factory from sunup to sundown.

One day while walking back home with her mother, a little boy with a bag of newspapers came up to them. Asking if they'd like a newspaper. Her mother gave the young boy a smile and handed him a penny for the paper. The boy tipped his cap to her, and gave a warm smile to Claire, who hid behind her mother's skirt. She wasn't the best when it came to other kids. Especially since she would always get picked on because of her height. Claire was much shorter than all the other kids. Plus her shyness didn't help at all.

The boys were the worst when it came to teasing. They would always make fun of her playing catch, or climbing trees in her free time. Oh, how much she hated being called out for being a girl. Her brother William once caught some neighborhood boys bullying her, and stopped the matter. Unlike Claire, William was actually taller than boys his age; so it wasn't that hard to scare off the shrimp boys who teased his little sister. After that incident, Will told his little sister that those boys are just scared that a girl could be better at everything they do.

As time went by things started to fall apart. One night when Claire had a nightmare she ran into her brother's room to stay with him for the night, but he wasn't there. That's when things went wrong. The small family then started looking for Will. Months went by before they gave up. To make matters worse her mother got pneumonia a year later during the winter, and died just a month after. Claire was only five when her mother died, and she was heartbroken. That's when her father went down the wrong path. He started drinking and gambling, and sometimes would hurt her. Claire would often hide in her room since it was the only safe spot in the apartment. One time her father brought back some woman, who seemed nice at first glance. But once her father left them to get to know each other the lady was no lady.

By the time June 1890 rolled, Claire woke up one morning and she soon found out her father was gone. She knew that he had gotten fired from his job a few months before hand, so there was no doubt he had ran off with that lady and left her behind. So Claire packed up her stuff, some food, what little money she had and left the apartment building for good.

For the first few days Claire as doing just fine on her own. If you call another orphan on the street fine. The days soon turned into weeks and so far things for Claire weren't too good. No one wanted to hire a small six year old girl. So, Claire did the only thing she could, and that was steal. Since she's a small little thing she easily got away with it. A few times she was able to pickpocket a few coins off of some people. While Claire knew it was wrong, she didn't have any other choice.

One night Claire was walking when she got jumped by some thug who started to hurt her. She tried to fight back, but she was at a disadvantage. One being since she tiny, another was because she was scared. Claire had never encountered something like this before. So all she could do was kick and scream with all her might. Then the next thing that happened was a blur. Something had jumped onto the man's back and said, "Ya do know it's rude ta be hurtin' a goil, right?"

"Get off of me ya twerp," the man said while trying to shake the boy off. But the only thing that the man shook off was Claire, who got tossed into a corner of the alley and landed with a little thud. Once Claire came to her senses she saw a boy was on the man's back. "I's could use a little help here!" the boy yelled as he grabbed the man into a headlock.