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Cold.
All she felt was cold.
And hungry. And scared. And maybe a little bit depressed. But she mostly felt cold.
She felt cold because of the thin, tattered cloak wrapped around her shoulders that barely protected from the harsh, crisp February winds. She felt cold because of the hard pavement against her bare feet and legs. If only she could afford shoes... And she felt cold because of the icy stares people shot at her as they passed her on the sidewalk, just before scoffing and turning their noses away.
Won’t somebody help me?
The sound of her stomach rumbling shook Chloe out of her thoughts and back to reality. The cold, hungry, scary, depressing reality. She reached into the pockets of her cloak, desperately searching for something, anything she could use to fill her stomach. She pulled out the only piece of food she could find: a day-old, somewhat stale piece of bread no bigger than the palm of her hand.
It’s better than nothing…
Chloe took a bite out of the bread, chewing it up as much as she possibly could to make it more digestible, and swallowed. The bread felt rough against her sore throat, and she returned the rest of her bread to her pocket. Who knew when the next time she could get some food would be?
If only someone would help me...
She reached out for the small, aluminum cup in front of her and lifted it up. That cup was her only chance of survival; each day she would hope a kind soul would drop a few coins into her cup so she could go buy some fresh bread or a piece of fruit or something to keep her from starving to death.
Today, the cup was empty.
“Change…? Please, I need change…” Chloe softly begged, her aching throat preventing her pleas from being any more audible. Perhaps this time she should invest in some water….
A sudden force slammed into Chloe’s cheek and knocked her to the ground, her ear colliding with the pavement. Pain jolted through her head as she slowly picked herself back up, looking for what could’ve hit her. Her eyes, dizzy from the impact, darted around aimlessly until they landed on a rock just a few inches away from her, about the size of her fist. She gazed above the rock and saw a boy, about her age, sticking out his tongue and pointing at her. Was he the one who threw the rock?
The blonde girl looked at the rock again and slowly picked it up. She turned the rock back and forth in her hand a few times. Although it seemed to be an ordinary gray rock at first, Chloe was surprised when she looked closer and found a couple specks of pink and green on the rock, with a few purple spots here and there. Precious stones, perhaps? Chloe shrugged and carefully set the rock down next to her, on top of a cardboard sign reading “Homeless & Useless” that someone had left her one night while she slept. Now she had a pet rock to keep her company, the most pleasant company she had in a long time.
“I think I’ll call you Rocky.”
Chloe didn’t care if she looked childish to the onlookers who passed her by for talking to a rock. She needed somebody to talk to, besides the very few potential donors. To her, Rocky was her closest companion, even her guardian angel. Sure, she would still have to worry about food and water and shelter, but at least now she had a friend to keep her from going crazy from isolation.
Friend…
Chloe never had any real friends growing up. She tried not to let it bother her so much in the past, but as she got older the social isolation began to take its toll on her. She had no idea what she was doing wrong. Everything she did seemed to cause more harm than good and chase more and more people away. She didn’t mean to cause so much trouble, all she wanted to do was do good deeds and make the world a better place. Chloe figured that more people would like her if she tried to help as many people as possible, but she never anticipated how cruel the world would be.
But then she found a friend. A true friend till the very end at last. And then she lost him.
Where are you, Timmy? Why can’t I find you?
Try as she might, Chloe couldn’t remember a single detail about how she and Timmy were separated and how Chloe ended up homeless and alone on a sidewalk. She didn’t even know if she was still in Dimmsdale. It felt so surreal to her, how she could suddenly lose everything in the blink of an eye just as she had finally found happiness.
Was it all even real? Was it all a dream she had? Had she always been living on the streets hoping for a better life?
Chloe didn’t have an answer to that. She wasn’t sure of anything anymore, but she did know one thing.
There had to be at least one person out there who still cared for her.
Chloe patted the colorful rock next to her and sighed. She stared up at the open blue sky as tears welled in her eyes.
Maybe one day she would escape from this nightmare and go back to her wonderful dream.