The Girl With The Red Balloon

O N E

CHAPTER 1

The little alleyway on the corner of Mr. Berstin's café was a sight for sore eyes, with rickety doors of every kind of wood squashed into the large buildings on either side, just barely three inches away from each other. The buildings were both abandoned, Mr. and Mrs. Tyson's company shut down all their branches in London, so they were transformed by the marvellous Miss Hudson into a homeless refugee camp.

Blankets and sleeping bags completely covered the floor of what used to be the back storage rooms, like the nonexistent rugs would have done. Pillows hidden underneath the carpet of covers from the dirty and grimy shoes of the homeless made the floor lumpy, uneven, and very hard to walk on. It was a common thing to trip while trying to cross the room, but there is no need to worry, for the soft layers always break their fall. The next room over was once the boiler room, now turned into a tight and hot kitchen. Something was constantly cooking, though no one knew what, for the large number of people needed food for their meals. Everyone gets their one meal at different times, in the morning, afternoon, evening, and occasionally night. It depends on how fast you are, everything is first come first serve. With the little income that they get, they don't have any time to clean up. The walls are thick with dirt, and a fat layer of sludge covers the floor of the shower. The bathrooms are even smaller than the kitchens, with open toilet seats and no gender discrimination. Small cupboards were turned into closets for the poor, never running out of space, for they don't have very many clothes.

Even in their lowlife state, everyone still thinks of each other as family. They all watch out for each other, make sure that the other doesn't get into trouble. Only a few select of the homeless have jobs, their low pay damaging them all. But Miss Hudson works the hardest. Miss Hudson is mainly gone all day, working to get money for the poor, but it is not enough for all of them. When she is home, she is either helping the women cook or entertaining the kids. Miss Hudson's favorite is Georgie. Everyone loves Georgie. What a fine boy he is. He never complains, never cries, never bickers nor fights.

Abandoned when he was a baby, Georgie was taken in by the poor persons and was raised as their own. He was a very easy baby, always laughing and playing. His good mood always affected everyone in the best of ways, no matter their situation. Georgie likes to take close-up looks at the small little things, never missing a single detail. Georgie believes that people like to skip over the insignificant things to get to the important problems quicker, not realising that the small things are the ones that count. Naturally, his favourite game to play is eye spy. Oh, how he loves eye spy. He likes it because nobody wins, nobody loses. But if you're the kind that thinks of it as a competition, then Georgie always wins. There's no beating him. Nobody tries. Nobody can. They simply can't.

(A/N: tehehe, so I guess im just having a good day today and felt like uploading. I actually had this chapter ready for a long time but I suppose I forgot about it :P. Its much shorter than I would like it to be, but it cant be helped. I think I have another chapter ready, but I'll probably wait until later to post it. Im gonna be very bad in posting so sorry to those two people who have had the misfortune of coming across this book. Kay thats all bye bye :)

- Remi)

(I also have this weird argument with myself on whether to refer to myself as Lemony or Remi, since my alias is Lemony Remi. But that doesn't matter in the slightest, just a little something thats bothering me ;) )