The girl without a name

He held both hands tight to his chest and ran, unsure whether anyone was even chasing him, but he didn't want to lose precious seconds with looking back. He imagined someone shouting something after him, but it could have also been the wind blowing through the narrow alleys, generating a howl like the one of a lone wolf.

They wouldn't catch him today. Not today.

The rain became stronger, causing him to press his hands together even harder in order to protect his treasure from the water. His footsteps were unnaturally loud on the street, even in the pattering rain. With every step of his naked feet, water, dirt and mud splashed up into the air which had piled up between the stones of the street. Without slowing down, he turned into a side street and continued running despite him having lost the feeling in his feet a long time ago. His stertorous breathing left white steam in the cold night air as his lungs wanted to burst, but he had to go on. If he didn't, they would catch him. He wouldn't survive another beating.

The rain was now so heavy that every drop on his maltreated body hurt like a pinprick on his skin. Half blinded by exhaustion, rain and the increasing darkness, he stumbled into the next alley which wasn't paved anymore. The rain had turned the earth into mud and he had a hard time concentrating on not letting his feet slip. In his hands, he could feel how the object dissolved more and more. It had become so soft already … Desperately, he ran even faster. If he wouldn't arrive in time, everything would have been in vain.

He turned around the next corner and bumped into someone, getting pushed back and falling on the hard ground in the process. Yet, despite his fall, he continued to press his hands against his chest, which was why his left shoulder bore the brunt of the impact, resulting in a short cry of pain coming from him.

"Who is there?"

He heard a deep throaty voice and from the corner of his eye he saw the pale light of a lantern which barely shined through the pouring rain. The lantern was moved around, so that its cone of light could shine on as many things as possible.

Damn.

He had run directly into the night watchman.

As fast as possible, he rolled over his shoulder and came to his knees without using his hands that still clutched his treasure. He just wanted to stand up and run away when the light shined on him.

"Damn rabble!", he heard the man shouting, then a hard kick in his stomach caused him to gasp for air. He fell back, convulsed with pain, and his fingers released his treasure against his wishes.

The wet piece of bread slipped through his hands and remained next to him in the mud.

With eyes wide open he had to watch how the rain carried away the already soaked bread bit by bit.

"I will teach you not to stray here in the night!" The watchman kicked him again, hitting his ribs this time. "You thieves should all be in prison!" Another kick followed. Then another one.

But it didn't bother the boy. Much worse than the pain was the despair. Trembling and with numb fingers, he reached out for the dispersed pieces of bread, which had started falling apart here and there, and collected them into his other hand, all while the watchman continued to kick him. As he closed his fist around the remains of this treasure, brown water oozed out between his fingers. He pressed his hand tightly against his chest again and struggled to get back on his feet.

"You won't get away, you little bastard!", the man lurked and roughly grabbed his injured shoulder. Despite the pain, the boy managed to break free and kicked him against his shin with all his might. The lantern fell to the ground noisily, tilted over and extinguished a few seconds later. Before the cursing man could get back on his feet again, the boy ran away. A stabbing pain spread on his right side, his hands and feet were numb and every breath was nothing short of torture, but he continued to run. For a long time he still heard the loud curses of the night watchman which just gradually got drowned by the pouring rain. Whatever happened, he wouldn't give up.

They wouldn't catch him today. Not today.

The last steps towards the city wall were done with him stumbling until he eventually collapsed in front of it. He waited a few seconds so he could catch his breath, followed by forcing himself to breath calmly afterwards and to listen into the distance. It had gotten so dark in the meantime that one was barely able to see anything, but even if it was unlikely that the night watchman would chase him in the dark, he had to consider the possibility. After a long moment in silence, the pouring rain aside, he finally calmed down. Clenching his teeth, he stood up while supporting himself with one hand against the wall. After the biggest part of his fear had vanished and he had allowed himself to have a little rest, the pain from before hit him so hard it almost robbed him off the air to breathe.

Just a bit more and you will be there. Just a bit more and you can rest. Just a bit …

Determinedly he went left, where a narrow gap between the wall and the house – so narrow that a child's famished body could just barely go through – led to a small backyard which was a safe place for the night. While he stepped up to the gap, he saw a shape on the ground. First he thought it was a roaming dog which had died there, but as he approached it, he knew he had been wrong.

It was a girl.

With the head facing down, she lay on the ground. Her long hair spread on her back and around her head and was so covered with mud that you couldn't determine its color. The rain drops uttered a hollow sound as they struck her wet coat.

She didn't move.

The boy hesitated for a second and then kneeled beside her. She had probably been dead for a while now, but it wouldn't be the first time that he had touched a corpse. He grabbed her shoulder and turned her around. The pain in his ribs became almost unbearable just from doing that. With a smacking sound, her coat was pulled out of the mud. As she finally lay on her back, halfway on the ground, halfway on his knees, he couldn't help but swallow down the lump that had formed itself in his throat. With shaking fingers, he brushed off some of her hair from her face. The rain washed the dirt away almost instantly and all that remained was a persistent, red runnel above her right eye which constantly made its way down her temple and over her cheek. With an unpleasant feeling, he looked at the head wound, getting surprised when he suddenly noticed her intermittent breath in the cold night air. He looked around for the night watchman again, but he couldn't see anyone.

Hunkering over her, he shook her shoulder with one hand. "Hey! Can you hear me? Wake up!" She didn't react at first, but then her eyelids flickered, followed by her finally looking at him with half opened green eyes. She moved her lips as if wanting to tell him something, but he couldn't understand her. He bent over and held his ear close to her lips.

"I am … so cold …"

"You have to get up, otherwise you will freeze to death out here in the rain", he replied. "Can you get up?" She slightly shook her head. Her eyelids began to flicker like as if she would faint again.

He looked at her for a long time before he suddenly became aware of his closed left fist which he still pressed against his chest as if his life depended on it. He stretched his arm out and slowly opened up his hand.

The bread was gone. The rain had washed it away. Who knew how long his hand had already been empty. Determined, he fought back the tears that irresistibly rose up and choked him. He had fought so hard for it, but everything had been in vain.

"Help me …" The girl's quiet words pulled him out of his despair. Her eyes were now wide opened and stared at him with fear. "Please help me …"

He wiped the water off his eyes with the soaking wet sleeve of his sweater and determinately nodded. He would survive another night without a piece of bread, but she wouldn't survive out there in the rain for sure. With one hand, he put her left arm around his neck and helped her to sit up. Then he clasped her waist with his other hand from behind and dragged her to her feet. Her coat was soaked and made her heavier than she really was. The pain from his side almost knocked him out when she heavily leaned on him like a wet bag. He gasped for breath, but gritted his teeth together and dragged her the last few steps to the wall, although it would have been much more accurate to say he pulled the girl with him rather than her walking on her own.

Afterwards, he couldn't tell how he had gotten them both through the narrow gap between the stones. He had brought the girl to the back corner of the backyard, where eaves held back the majority of the rain. He spread a blanket over her which he had stolen a few weeks ago and then sank to the ground next to her. Before he could tell her to take off her wet clothes in order to prevent her body from cooling down even further, his pain finally became unbearable and he fell into deep darkness.

. . .

. . .

He woke up once he noticed the midday sun shining down warmly on his face. Opening his eyes, the first thing he saw was a shiny red apple lying in front of his face. Right behind it, a girl sat on her haunches, her arms wrapped tightly around her knees, staring at him with her green eyes.

Right, the girl in the rain …, he remembered. It looks like we both survived the night. He smiled internally about how he could keep something like this in perspective. If you had to fight every day for your survival, thoughts about life and death became the norm very fast. It didn't happen very often anymore that his survival instinct prevailed and made him do something out of despair. But yesterday had been one of these rare moments. Embittered he thought about his treasure which had been taken away from him by the rain.

"Good morning." The girl had a clear and gentle voice. She had wrapped herself in a blanket and still looked at him, unmoving. Her long straight hair had a dark purple color, but shined almost silver in the sunlight.

"Good morning", he mumbled and noticed that someone had spread a blanket over him, too. Furthermore, a coiled one was under his head. He had probably slumped down at the wall and just fallen to the side yesterday evening. There was no other explanation for his current position. He wanted to sit up, but the pain in his side let him sink back again with a gasp. He pulled back the blanket and carefully pushed up his sweater which was still wet and cold. The skin over his ribs had changed its color to red and purple and ached by the slightest touch.

"If you're lucky, nothing is broken", the girl said. "But looks like the contusion will put you out of action for some days anyway."

The boy made a derogatory noise and sat up carefully while trying to dissemble his pain. "As if people like us were able to afford to laze around for a few days."

"This one is for you", she said, shortly after he sat up, and pointed at the apple with an outstretched forefinger.

His heartbeat increased at these words. Avidly he stared at the fruit, feeling as if he could taste its delicious sweetness already. Silently, he reached out his hand, but retracted it again instantly as the pain took away his breath at this gesture.

"Wait, I'm going to help you." The girl took the apple into her hand and bit a big piece off. Then she took it with her other hand's thumb and forefinger out of her mouth and moved closer to him. "Open your mouth!", she ordered and pushed the piece of apple between his lips.

She continued like this until the whole apple was gone. While she fed him this way, they didn't talk to each other, but tears which just didn't want to run dry had run down his cheeks the whole time. He didn't know whether they were tears of happiness, of relief or of some kind of overwhelming power, but he wasn't able to hold them back, no matter how hard he tried. She just smiled silently as if she was able to understand his feelings, and wiped away the tears with the back of her hand from time to time.

"Thank you", he was hoarsely able to say, as she finally flipped the apple stalk with her fingers which was left only.

"You saved my life yesterday. I thank you, too", she answered and smiled at him. While looking into her eyes he felt like standing at the edge of a forest and gazing fascinated at the trees and bushes all around him.

"What about your head wound?", he asked.

She carefully touched the wound above her eye with her fingers. It didn't bleed anymore at least. "It's not that bad. It just knocked me out very hard yesterday. Perhaps I shouldn't have fought over that guy's wallet." She shrugged and then sighed deeply. "It takes time until you can rate the people in a new town."

"Are you from afar?"

She nodded. "I'm from a small village of the other side of the forest which borders on this town here. Anyway, my clothes should be dry again." She suddenly stood up and the blanket slipped off her shoulders. Her soft, warm skin touched his face slightly, while she wrapped the blanket carefully around his upper body. Then she went over to her clothes which she had spread on the ground so that they could dry in the midday sun. "Best you wait here, when I find something to eat for us", she continued while quickly dressing. Her body was littered with as many bruises, scratches and effusions as his body was. The painful fate of all street children. "Any wishes, ehm …?" With a grey blouse in her hand she frowningly turned around. "I don't know your name."

"Yuu", he introduced himself. "My name is Yuu. And yours?"

She remained silent and continued dressing. As she held up the coat, it still dripped. She put it on the ground again and finally stepped up to him.

"If I had a name once, I must have long since forgotten it by now", she explained while braiding her long hair and then binding it together with a grey ribbon.

"But I have to call you somewhat", he countered and thought about it. Then he laughed and she looked surprised down at him.

"What is so funny?"

"I've got it! I'll call you by your name: Nameless! Nanashi!"

She stared at him, baffled. Then a big smile spread out on her face. "Nanashi …", she repeated like she had to hear the sound of the name to evaluate it. "Nanashi. I like this name! Nanashi! From this day forward my name is Nanashi!" She jumped the last steps to the gap in the wall and turned around one last time, before she disappeared.

"Don't you dare to leave this place, Yuu – I'll come back!"