The Price of Freedom

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(Jade)

I awoke to the sound of a screaming toddler. I then rolled over and buried my head in the thin pile of ratty sheets that I called my pillow. I would have checked the time on my watch, if I had one, but unfortunately I didn't. I had had one once, I'd found it in the rubbish but it stopped working after a week. I guess it didn't like Wheeler street conditions. I didn't blame it though, who does? But it was a pretty watch and I did miss it. Since I had no watch guessing would have to suffice, and judging by the light it was 4am. Great, I thought. Just Great. I stood up slowly, being careful not to wake up either Gale or Cleo. I walk out into the alley.

It was dark, damp, musty and filthy. It reeked of rubbish, unwashed bodies, starving children and most of all, despair. But at the same time Wheeler Street was the only home I'd ever known. If I liked nothing else about it then I loved our house. It was my pride and joy. It had taken years to make, years of stealing and poking around in rubbish. It was made mostly of old scraps of cardboard and tin metal, it consisted of two rooms: our bedroom, which barely fit in our three 'beds' (piles of whatever soft substances we could find) and our livingroom/diningroom/kitchen. It had a small wood stove in the corner and a makeshift table with broken chairs around it. We used what ever we could find as fuel for our little stove which was made out of mud and had a rustic look about it. Ok, So our little house wasn't much but it kept out the rain, mostly, and was much better than what any of the other wheeler street kids had. Gale hated our house, because he thought we deserved better. But for me, I loved it. I'd never known anything else.

However shelter was not the main problem, it was food. There was never a day in Wheeler Street when starving children didn't beg you for food. There was never a month were you didn't see the bodies of dead children. Their bones all stuck out unnaturally and their family (if they had any) would be seen weeping around them. Those are things I will never forget. We had it pretty good though. We had Gale, at fourteen he was one of the oldest wheeler-street kids. And he was a pretty good thief. He wouldn't have stolen if he didn't have to, but he had no choice. None of us did. It was steal or die. I wouldn't have survived without Gale, and Cleo too I suppose.

The screaming of the toddler brought me back to reality. I had come out here for a reason. I walked over to a pile of junk in the darkest corner of the alley. I checked both ways to see if any one was looking. And then pulled away a piece of aluminium to reveal my food stash. Every time we had food I hid a bit of it away I don't know what for exactly. I didn't usually eat any of it even if we hadn't had food. I suppose it was a bit of a safety precaution, in case something happened to Gale. I pulled out a piece of hard bread and put it in my pocket. I then replaced the aluminium to its source.

It was a small shelter, not far from ours, I peeked through the makeshift door. There was a girl, about eight years old cradling a little toddler in her arms. He wasn't plump, like toddlers should be but painfully skinny. And he was screaming like mad, the poor girl looked desperate.

"Here let me hold him" I said to her. She looked up, shocked. She hadn't noticed me before. She passed him over reluctantly. I rocked him back in forth in my arms a bit till he slowly started to stop screaming. I know what you're thinking. How can a twelve year old be good with babies? Well I used to help out with some if the littlies around the neighbourhood. Me and Cleo used to look after them while their siblings were out stealing. I passed him back to the girl who I presumed was his sister.

"What's his name?" I asked. She stared at him for a little while then replied softly:

"Matthew, his name is Matthew. And-uh thanks"

"No problem, I should be getting back soon but-here" I held the little piece of bread out to her. It wasn't much, only about half a slice. She stared at it with her sunken eyes for a minute, awestruck as if it was the strangest thing she'd ever seen. Then, tentatively, she reached out and took it in her hand.

"Thankyou so so much" she whispered i could see tears running down her cheeks. Without a word I left.

Now please before you start thinking I'm such an angel-I'm not. Half the reason I did that was to stop the guy from crying. I mean seriously, he was giving me a headache and I wanted to get back to sleep. I walked back towards our house and walked through the door. To my surprise Cleo and Gale were standing there, already up and waiting for me.

"What took you so long Jade?" Cleo asks in her usual sassy voice.

"Uhhhhh, what are YOU doing up? It's about 4:30 if you didn't notice"

"We've got work to do" Gale answers his face set in a grim line.

"Work?" But I already knew what they were going to do. They were going out to steal. Again. As always. I sighed. I did love our house, but I still wish we didn't have to live like this. We deserved better. All the Wheeler-Street Kids did.