Chapter One

The sun broke through the clouds and its golden rays streamed down onto the Earth, warming the ground- Sounds wonderful doesn't it? Well, it'd be very daft of you to think that all stories begin this way.

I was born on a cold, dark, dreary night in October, Halloween to be exact, in Paris, France to a drug addicted mother and a dead-beat father. I don't remember much of them besides the frizzy hair of my mother and her raspy, cracked voice begging for the day to end. My father was never really around to say a simple "hello" to his only son but that didn't matter to me, I was too engrossed in reading the few books I managed to get a hold of...

I stared at the colorful pages filled with illustrations of children playing in the sunny park with their dog, they smiled and played, so carefree and happy. This was my favorite book, I loved to imagine that I could become a character of the story and not worry about whether I was going to eat that night or not, I could ignore the pangs of starvation and the pain from the sores that Mother inflicted on me while she was high on her drug of choice. Hugging my knees, tears building up behind my dark, sorrowful eyes, I turned to the next page and stared at the pictures like I stared at the one before.

"Boy!" Mother hollered in a raspy witch-like voice as she pushed herself into an upright position. "Boy, I need to you to come here," she continued, "I need you to come to Mama."

Slowly, I brought myself to my feet and, without any choice, I came to her.

"Y...Yes, Mama?" I said softly, staring at my feet and biting my thumb childishly.

She reached into the pocket of her dilapidated old jeans and pulled out a few coins, "Buy Mama something to eat, would ya?"

I nodded and held out my hand as she dropped the coins into my hand. I wrapped my fingers around the money and without thinking I spoke, "But I'm hungry too, Mama?"

Immediately, she smacked me across the face and pushed me towards the door. The sting of tears filled my eyes and I looked down; stuck, I couldn't move my feet. A sob escaped me but that didn't get sympathy from my own mother, she merely yelled at me. "You ungrateful little boy! I do everything for you and you can't even get me something to eat without talking back!?"

I quivered, looking down at my feet...just taking the verbal abuse she panned out. I left before she was finished...

Soon the sun sank below the horizon and the street lamps lit up with bright white lights, people passed me by in long coats with their face wrapped with scarves. I hugged my body to protect myself from the frigid winter air and looked into the windows of the shops I passed. Breads stores, cheeses, candy stores and restuarants were all around. What would Mother want?, I thought to myself.

Fingering the coins in my pocket and made my way into a pastry shop. The sweet aroma of fresh cakes tickled my nose...and my stomach. The glass counter teased me; it was filled with pastries of all kinds, from donuts to pies to tiny fancy cookies. I pressed my face against the glass, dreaming that I could possibly afford at least one of these small pieces of pleasure. Behind me I heard a loud, warm chuckle. Upon turning around, I saw a round beet-red man. He approached me and bent down to look inside the glass counter, "Looking to buy something, young man?" he said.

At the time I didn't realize it but this was the question that changed my life. Of course I wanted to buy something, to have something I could call my own and enjoy it however I wanted. And that's what I did.

"Yes...I want candy..", I said timidly as I pointed at the colorful candy filled shelves, "I want something sweet," I continued then nervously looked up at the man.

The man smiled widely and lead me over to the shelves, "Ah, well, you'll just LOVE Elf Puffs. They're like cotton candy!" he said while he reached up to a bright blue and pink bag, neatly labeled as Elf Puffs. I reached out to the bag and carefully looked at the bag. It was almost magical, my dreams came true. I finally had something that every other little kid had...and I was happy.

I came home with no food for Mother...