A woman dressed in a multi-colored dress walked down the street. She looked to be about 6 or 7 months pregnant and her dress was slowly turning gray from all the days she had spent in the sun and in the rain. She had a black cloak wrapped around her but even that color was starting to look like the stone around her. She sat down on a bench beneath a lamp, watching and waiting. She was trying to decide as well. There was a store in front of her, a bakery. The food smelled delicious. The baker and his wife were making fresh bread to sell for the day, surly they wouldn't notice if a piece that was a day or two old went missing.
The woman stood up and walked in. She looked around hoping to see something she could afford with the little money she had. She saw nothing. The baker's wife came out and said, "Shoo! Get out of here gypsy. There is nothing you can afford her!" While the baker's wife was yelling at her, she slipped a loaf of bread under her cloak and then hurried away. Unknown to her, there was an inspector standing right outside the door.
As she left the bakery, the inspector grabbed her by the wrist and she dropped the bread. "Caught you red handed. You're coming with me." The inspector's evil grin grew wider as he noted her visibly pregnant stomach. Her hood had fallen down and the inspector could see her face clearly now. Long, untidy brown curls fell around her pale face. She had pale blue eyes and her cheeks were sunken in for starvation. The inspector's smile grew wider. "Ah, we meet again, you little whore. Come along then, you'll be prisoner 10642."
Mercy allowed herself to be dragged by this man, astounded that she had seen him again. He had promised that if she bore a child, he would take care of her. He had lied. She stumbled along the uneven path in Paris, silently praying to God to spare her child pain and suffering due to her transgressions. A lone tear slid down her face. Only that one, Mercy could not allow herself to show any more weakness.