Searching Hearts

1. Clover Jones

Clover trudged down the alleyway toward the cardboard box she called home. Her thoughts of her day consumed her. She didn't want to be here. She wanted a normal home with normal and loving parents. She wanted what other people had. She was tired of fending for herself.

She reached her box and pulled the flap up that was her "roof". She dug in her pockets for the things she had collected that day and shoved them into her small collection box. Tomorrow she would bring them to the store and see if she could get anything for them.

She pulled the ratty blanket away that served as her comforter and settled herself into her bed. She stared up at the stars, searching for the brightest one. Finding it, she closed her eyes and began wishing. Her wishing brought her back to when she actually had a family, when she didn't have to live on her own.

Clover Jones, at one point in her life, had two very loving parents. They werent perfect, no one is. Her mother knew Jesus as her personal Saviour. Her father tolerated her faith, but never became apart of it. But they were a happy family. Then, at the age of six, her mother contracted yellow fever and tragically died. That left Cover alone with her father. It was fine at first, but her father's sadness quickly turned into depression. His way of dealing with it became one thing; alcohol. He would drink himself drunk and did the worst thing. He would come home staggering drunk and beat his daughter.

The girl endured it, hoping it would help her father. But as the years passed it just got worse and worse. Clover became bitter. She got bitter at her father and at God. She couldn't understand why the God that her mother had worshipped would let this happen to her. He was supposed to loving and caring, but He took her mother and left her with her father, with no protection.

The day she turned ten was the last straw. Her father came home worse than usual. He found her in her room and took off his belt. He started yelling at her and swearing, making up things that she did wrong or blaming her for her mothers death. Which Clover knew wasn't her fault. He was about to lay the fourth blow when she used her last bit of strength and pushed him. She grabbed the bag that she had packed for a such a time as this and ran. She's been running for the past five years and she's never looked back.

She felt a drop on her cheek and opened her eyes. She saw clouds covering up the night sky and knew a storm was brewing. She closed the flap of her box and settled in. She looked over at her collection box, her eyes catching the small Bible sitting on top of it. She never read it. The only reason she kept it was because it was her mother's. Her mother had given it to her a few weeks before she died. It's the only possession she has left of her.

Clover could feel the sorrow in her heart expand. She felt the tears come to her eyes and she curled up in a ball. She felt her heart break for the umpteenth time as the tears started cascading down her face. She let the tears come. She let out a cry, as the sound of thunder filled the air. She knew no one could hear her, so she let the pain consume her. She cried until she could cry no more, eventually falling asleep. Sleep being her only escape.