Fifteen years later.
Ni-na,Ni-na, Ni-na. The sirens in the distance wailed. Sounding,ironically, like my name. This time though, the sirens weren't calling for me. They've called me enough lately.
I couldn't help but wonder what Mrs. Potts was doing at this moment. 9 o'clock, read my wrist watch. She was probably tucking in all the younger kids at the orphanage.
When I was younger, I couldn't stand mrs Potts. I guess some part of me blamed her for my life. She tells, me one morning, she went to get the paper, and I was sitting outside her door. With only a little note saying my name. Nina Hope. There was no last name. So, for school, I was enrolled as Nina Hope. Mrs. Potts assumes it was my mother who dropped me off fifteen years ago, but really, she doesn't know. I was raised by Mrs. Potts and her helpers in her orphanage. When I was about three, was the first time I realized that I had a mother and she was gone. That was when a seven year old, Sage Winston, was sent to Mrs. Potts place because her mother, her only family, died of stage four lung cancer. She cried for her mother a lot in the first month. Finally, when I asked her about this "mother" she told me what a mom was. I'd never known because I don't even remember mine. I was only a few weeks old when I was dropped off. I don't even know my real birthday. But Mrs. Potts chose to call it June 18th. The day that the case of searching for my mother closed. Needless to say, she wasn't found.
It wasn't until I was eleven, that Mrs. Potts told me how I got to the orphanage. Any time I asked, she would briskly shake her head and say that she'd tell me when I was old enough to understand. But honestly, I still don't understand. We could only guess why, but the reasons we formed, don't seem good enough to leave your child alone in the world.
Leaving me at the orphanage wasn't such a good idea after all. It's nine o'clock at night, I'm hungry, and I'm a wanted woman.
My life is pretty much screwed up.
I carefully stood up, careful to watch for anyone who would turn me Into the law. Seeing no one, I jogged out of the filthy alley I had been hiding in.
I grew up in Fernely, where the orphanage is, but I'm now on the run, in Reno.
I walked on the sidewalk. Hoodie pulled high, hood up. No one would be able to identify me. Good. Humming my favorite song, I looked around for an abandoned apartment, or other living space. In Reno, there's tons of them.
There! A small apartment complex. Apartment C8 has a window in an alley. No one would know I'm looking through it. I pick up the pace a little, and I'm power walking. When I get into the dark alley, I jog to the window. It's on the second floor. Crap.
Looking around, I see a trash can and about six milk crates. I hurriedly grabbed them and started to stack. I emptied the trash out of the can, and turned it up side down. Carefully, and quietly, I stacked milk crates one by one until all seven were stacked. When I was on top of the makeshift mountain, I only had a small jump to the windows ledge. Quietly, and hopefully not knocking any crates down, I jumped. Successfully, I was hanging from the ledge.
From experience, and gained upper-body strength, I pulled like I was doing a chin-up, so I could see inside.
This place was definitely abandoned. It's only furniture was an old mattress, and a rocking chair. And luckily, it was an easy entrance. A cracked window.
I quietly pulled myself in, just in case any neighbors were still awake. I landed with a quiet thump. And walked out of the bedroom. What I saw though, was the last thing I expected.
"Miss Hope, you have the right to remain still and Silent. Nina Hope, you are under arrest."