She had all she wished and all she dreamed. A loving family and a roof over her head. She never went without a meal, she was well provided. Started public school with her peers. She went through the years until one day, in third grade. She walked home from the bus, skipping and singing. But, when she reached her home, people were screaming. Dad was missing and Mom was bleeding. A fire blazed in the kitchen, breaking the windows. It spread through the bedrooms, setting the house ablaze. Sirens wailed in the distance. Iris fought her way through the crowd. When she came across her mother, she let out a shrill scream. Her mother's skin was charred black, 4th degree burns as if she'd walked through a campfire. A silence had fallen over the crowd. She was ushered away. No one knew what to tell her. She had lost more than a home. She'd lost a family she called her own. All her relatives, they lived too far away; they had no place for her to stay. Her new reality was a single cot with hardly any sheets. Two pairs of clothing; one for day and the other for sleep. She was required to clean all hours of the day. She received hardly any sleep. No one talked to her, though they knew her grievances. She was all alone. In her mind, one question would always play, "Why?".
