"Hey, wake up. Wake up." Magic was leaning over me and whispering.

"Good God. What time is it?" I yawned. I never have been a morning person. I can just barely get up when Matron Smith is threatening to beat me until "You start bleeding out your idiotic ears Anna-Maria!"

"Three o'clock in the morning. We've got to talk about a plan. Is there anyplace private we can go?"

I thought for a few seconds before replying, "The only place I can think of is the bathroom. Most of the girls savor every bit of sleep they can get."

I stumbled out of bed and showed Magic the way to the bathroom. Funny how Matron Smith doesn't care how often the girls' bathroom is cleaned but she wants hers done every other day. The bathroom is filthy.

"Well, escape plans," Magic pondered. "Shall we go with the tried and true? We could do a Jack Kelly and leave in a carriage. Perhaps the window by way of the roof. Or should we be originals? I have some ideas, but I'm not sure of the logistics of the place. And how much time do we want to spend here anyway?"

"I don't care how we get out just as long as I get out. I haven't been outside for longer than fifteen minutes in almost a year!" I would've screamed but I remembered the other girls just in time. But I also wondered, what in the world was a Jack Kelly?

"Jesus, Mary and Joseph. I guess we'll have to go original. I'd need longer to get rope and things. Go back to bed. I'll give you a signal when we need to talk." Magic told me.

"Hey I've escaped the Refuge too you know! It's not like I'm a child." I told her, more than a little angry all of a sudden.

"Oh, Annie. I know that, but you've been in jail for more than a year. Your instincts will be dulled. You know as well as I do the way to keep instincts sharp is to actually live on the street." Magic spoke to me in a soothing tone of voice.

I nodded understandingly and started back to bed. Magic is the best there is and I just have to accept that she knows what she's doing. No matter how much I'm used to being in control of

"Girls, girls! Wakey, wakey! Get out of bed you lazy little bums." All too soon Matron's voice echoed through the large bunkroom.

I slipped out of bed and helped little Julia tie her hair back. Then it was time for breakfast. The same prayer and the same watery gruel to eat as. Just like every breakfast. I glanced over at Magic who was eating as if it were a Thanksgiving dinner. She told me once that she was just happy to have food.

Matron Smith stood and began to speak, "Now children today we have a new girl. Her name is Colleen Donnelly and she comes from Newark. Stand up Colleen. Thank you. Today girls in row one will scrub, two will do kitchens and three will do laundry."

So Magic told them her name was Colleen. I don't think so. I doubt if anyone remembers Magic's real name anymore but Magic and Spot, maybe.

I stand and start clearing and taking dishes to the kitchens.

"Anna-Maria, you'll be washing today. Julia and Bertha can dry. When Anna-Maria is done she can help me chop cabbages and peel potatoes. The others can get started scrubbing the kitchen down." Cook told the ten girls of row two.

I stand on my aching feet and scrub dishes and cups and spoons for what seems like forever. After I'm down with those I start on the big cauldron Cook uses to make her gruels and soups. My hands start to protest being dipped in scalding water and I'm very relieved when the mountain of table settings stops growing larger.

I wipe my hands off on my apron, which is an entirely different pattern of flannel than the calico dress. They are both equally ugly though. I suppose I can't complain. If a condition of my escape would be that I'd have to wear this exact same outfit for the rest of my life I would before you could say Jack Robinson.

After chopping a huge amount of cabbage I pile it into a pot of water on the stove. Then I begin to peel potatoes. Cook takes the actual potatoes and feeds them to Warden Harper and Matron Smith. We get the potato peelings in our soup. We don't get many of those either. In the soup there is also a soup bone that has been around since before the flood as Junior from Queens used to say. Usually that was just before we got chased around Queens by the formerly old and decrepit bull he'd just described.

Wiping my sweaty hair out of my eyes I look up to see Magic nodding at me from the hallway. Catching her drift I ask Cook if she'll let me go to the bathroom and leave the kitchen.

"Magic? Are you out here?" I whisper cautiously when I walk a bit farther out into the hall.

'Yes Annie, follow me." Magic's quiet reply came from the shadows just a tiny bit ahead and to my right. I follow her down the stairs into the basement. I gulp as I figure out where we are heading. The isolation room!

"Magic, I don't think this is such a great idea. I tend to get a little sick in that room." I hope she heard me, but she doesn't seem to be paying any attention. I really can't stand isolation. That was where they threw me after I ran away those two times this year. It is a totally dark airless cell. And I woke up hurting very badly those times. The warden had beaten me into unconsciousness before throwing me in. Therefore, this room does not have very pleasant memories for me.

Oh, God. That's where we are. Magic goes to sit down and pulls me down next to her.

"Okay I'll make it quick. Tonight we have to escape." She informed me matter of factly. "We'll be going out the front door."

I interrupt rather skeptically "Oh, yeah? How in the world are we possibly going to do that?!"

She smiles and shakes her head. "Have some faith Annie. The warden is having a dinner party of potential benefactors. We have to get on the waitress list because they'll give us new clothes. I'll take care of that. All you have to do is figure out some cloaks for us to wear and blend in as we leave."

I grin. This plan sounds just as if it might work perfectly. "All right Magic or Colleen I suppose. New York here we come."

"Colleen Donnelly isn't my real name. And this plan is going to beat all other escapes! Even Jacky-boy's." She smiled at me.

"I'm sorry here but am I missing something? What was Jack Kelly's famous escape?" I finally remember to ask what I have been wondering about since last night.

"I'll tell you while you are walking back to the kitchens. I can tell you're about ready to have a nervous breakdown in here."

Leaving the isolation cell I stumble over a body crouching outside the door. "Julia Martin what are you doing here!" I cried out furiously.

"I had to go to the bathroom too and Cook said I could go with you so I followed you." Julia whimpered when she saw the irate faces of me and Magic.

I looked at Magic and she looked at me, then we spoke at the exact same time, "We'll have to take her with us."

Magic was mumbling under her breath and counting on her fingers as we walked back (I had Julia's hand in a tight grip) to the kitchen. Totally forgotten was the infamous Jack Kelly escape plan.

Finally she turned to me and said, "We'll have to sneak Julia out of the bunkroom. No wait, we'll have her wait in the girls' bathroom and then we'll climb through and get her."

"What are you talking about? The bathroom is on the third floor. And I thought you said there were too many bars on the windows to get anybody out." I burst out with a stream of quite chatter.

"It'll be fine. I just have to do some filing of the bars beforehand. And honestly, have you ever seen a wall I can't get up or over somehow."

Strangely enough, I feel quite reassured by Magic's words. Now if there wasn't so much that could go wrong.

I am able to wheedle Cook into letting me go to the bunkroom to wait for dinner at four forty rather than ten to five. I use that time to run upstairs into the storage attic. I just know that there has to be two cloaks somewhere in storage. After quickly looking through three dusty boxes I come across two cloaks, a dark blue one and a black one, that aren't too badly moth eaten. I take them downstairs and in the nick of time I am able to hide them under my mattress before the other girls and Matron Smith come in.

"Quiet girls. Quiet." Matron starts speaking and everyone ignores her. "Shut up you good for nothing lazy brats!" When she screams and stops acting 'classy' you know you'd better shut up or you will regret it.

"Thank you. Now I need two girls to serve the Warden and his guests their dinner tonight." Amid the shouts of please Matron pick me she looks down at the paper in her hand "Let's have Colleen Donnelly and Anna-Maria Higgins?" She looked down at her paper evidently puzzled at seeing my name. Apparently I am not the most eligible candidate for good manners. She shrugs it off though and tells us to report at seven o'clock sharp!

Tonight dinner doesn't seem near as disgusting as it usually does. Maybe knowing that I won't have to eat it tomorrow is the trigger. I'm also issued a plain grey dress. It's rather old but in good shape and much better than what I'm wearing. I'm told I'll have to return it. Okay. Sure I will. Don't worry Matron.

After supper I sneak some blankets into the bathroom and hide them behind one of the stalls. I tell Julia that when people are done using the bathroom to go in there and wait.

Serving dinner is absolutely horrible. I have to smile at all these people who talk about how I can rise above my beginnings and become a servant or if I'm really lucky and reach the pinnacle of all my hopes I could be a shopgirl! Oh, my. Plus there are girls my age here with their parents. They look down their noses at me like I'm trash. I'm not. I may be a street rat but my life was so much better than theirs when I was on the outside. I could go wherever and I didn't have to worry about how that takes me off the marriage market. And I can't believe that they are having roast beef and potatoes.

"So little girl," an old man asked me "What did you have to eat today? Was it nourishing?"

I am tempted to answer with the truth but I glance over at Magic and she shook her head. She's probably right. If I make Warden Harper mad we'll never get out of this place tonight. "Sir for breakfast I had hot oatmeal, for lunch I had chicken potpie and for dinner I had soup and bread."

He smiled benevolently as he patted my head and left. Magic and I cleared the table while Matron Smith watched.

"Hiccup, girls I think I'll just go on upstairs. Hiccup." I laugh inside as Magic and I exchange looks. Matron is as drunk as a skunk! Perfect.

We get the cloaks from where I hid them and pull them on while we hurry outside with the last of the guests.

"Smell that fresh outside air." I gasped as we ran around the side of the building. My first taste of the outside in more than six months!

Magic directs me to a fire escape and we start to climb. I just can't look down. Don't look down. Ack! I looked down.

"Annie, here." Magic handed me a rope tied around her waist as she prepared to climb to the bathroom window horizontally. I closed my eyes but eventually had to peek. Magic was balancing on a tiny ledge and filing away at the last iron bar. Quickly she opened the window and pulled out tiny Julia all wrapped up in blankets. She used a blanket to make a sling and tied Julia to her front.

"Annie, pull on the rope hard and very quickly." Her voice was the tensest I'd ever heard it.

I pulled and Magic practically ran along the ledge. The last few steps she almost fell. When she realized this she threw herself over into the fire escape.

"Magic are you okay? Are you okay Julia?" I asked anxiously.

Magic just gave me a quick nod and began moving down the ladder as fast as she could move. When she got down she ran across the courtyard and went against the wall. I followed as closely as I could. Strangely Julia was still asleep or at least dozing.

"Look, Annie. Do you think you could still get over a wall?" Magic asked me seriously.

"I think so." I said and when Magic nodded I ran, jumped, and vaulted myself to the top. Magic called from the bottom, "Catch this rope and haul Julia up." I did and took into my arms a now awake and very frightened little girl. Then Magic got herself up the wall and we went under the bars around the top.

After about fifteen minutes of walking we got to the train yards and on a train for New York.