Hard-Knock Life (July, 1933)
I was drifting in and out of a half-dream, vague images swirling their way in and out of my head fleetingly when the light flashed in my eyes. What is it? I murmured to myself. I opened my eyes slowly, rubbed them—and where Annie should be there was nothing. Oh, no. Not again.
"Now what?' Pepper's voice snapped as she rolled out of bed in the corner of my eye.
"Annie? Whatta ya doin'?" Kate asked.
"Running away," Annie replied.
"Oh. My. Goodness." (Three guesses as to who that might be.)
"My folks are never coming for me. I gotta go find them," the girl said firmly.
"Annie, you're crazy," I said, catching her arm. It never worked, trying to talk sense into her, but the least I could do was try. "Miss Hannigan'll catch you."
"And give you the paddle," Tessie added.
"I don't care. I'm getting out of here." Annie tugged her arm out of my grasp and picked up her flashlight. "Okay, I'm ready. Wish me luck."
"Good luck, Annie," we all murmured, knowing full well what Annie's attempts to escape entailed. The small group scampered off, all except for Pepper, who stayed behind long enough to scoff, "So long, dumbbell. And...good luck." Her features softened—it was one of the rare moments where Pepper was sincerely caring about someone, if only for a fleeting moment.
I tossed and turned around in the now half-empty bed. I knew what would happen to her, we had all tried to run away at one time or another, and all suffered the same fate—capture and cleaning. Annie was frequently trying to run off. She knew what has bound to happen, somewhere in the back of her brain, but hoped anyway. Her optimism was one of her strongest traits, but it was also a weakness. It pretty much allowed her to refuse to think logically.
Thuds and crashes sounded in my ears, and someone being flung to the floor. I tried to ignore them as long as I could until--
"Everybody, get up! Get up! Get u-u-u-u-up!" Miss Hannigan screeched. We immediately jumped out of bed and ran to our line-up in front of the cots. "Now," she said, grinning evilly like a wicked witch. "For this one's shenanigans--" She pointed, all all of our heads swiveled towards Annie, who rolled her eyes, "--you're all going to get down on your knobby little knees and clean this dump till it shines like the top of the Chrysler Building!"
Tessie quickly stepped up and tapped Miss Hannigan on the shoulder. She turned towards the frightened girl, who started to cry. "B-but it's four o'clock in the morning!" she burst out.
Miss Hannigan smiled and put her hand under Tessie's chin mock-lovingly, then grabbed her cheeks and growled, "Get to work!"
"Yes, Miss Hannigan," we chorused.
"NOW!" We grabbed our buckets and rags and set to work. I could hear Miss Hannigan murmuring, "Why any kid would want to be an orphan, I'll never know!"
I rolled my eyes. Once she was safely out of sight, we started complaining, as we usually do. "It's the hard-knock life for us! It's the hard-knock life for us!"
"'Steada treated--" Annie started.
"We get tricked!"
"'Steada kisses--"
"We get kicked1 It's the hard-knock life!" We slammed our buckets down full force onto the poor floor. "Got no folks to speak of, so, it's the hard-knock row we how!"
"Cotton blankets--"
"'Steada wool!"
"Empty bellies--"
"'Steada full! It's the hard-knock life!"
"Don't it feel like the wind is always howlin'?' Annie asked us as she cleared the buckets.
"Don't it seem like there's never any light?" Kate and Tessie complained.
"Once a day, don't you wanna throw the towel in?' I murmured, more to myself than anyone, but Pepper and Molly admitted, "It's easier than puttin' up a fight."
"No one's there when your dreams at night get creepy!" Annie shouted.
"No one cares if you grow or if you shrink!" Molly added.
"No one dries when your eyes get red and weepy," Tessie moaned.
"From the crying you would think this place'd sink! Ohh!" We started marching around the room, like little soldiers in Miss Hannigan's army. "Empty belly life! Rotten smelly life! Full-of-sorrow life! No tomorrow life!"
"Santa Claus we never see," Molly confided to Annie.
"'Santa Claus'?" Pepper demanded, pushing Molly aside. "What's that? Who's he?"
"No one cares for you a smidge when you're in an orphanage! It's the hard-knock life!" We started to continue cleaning, but Molly stood up on her bed and yelled, "You'll stay up till this dump shines like the top of the Chrysler Building!" in an attempt to liven things up.
It worked. We chased Molly around the room and threw her in the laundry basket. It was kind of fun, actually.
"It's the Hard-Knock Life!"
"Good morning, children," Miss Hannigan burst into the room, whistle at the ready.
We pulled away from the basket. "Good morning, Miss Hannigan."
She waited a few seconds before demanding, "Well?"
"I love you, Miss Hannigan," we chorused.
A muffled " I love you, Miss Hannigan" came from the laundry basket, and Molly popped out!
"You! What are you doin' in there?"
"Nothin'."
Miss Hannigan turned to me. "Get her out of there." I rushed over to the basket and helped the little girl, who was desperately trying to suppress a giggle (and failing). "Shhh, Molly. You almost got us in trouble," I whispered. Her expression turned guilty.
Miss hannigan turned Molly to face her and growled, "Your days are numbered." The whistle blew. "All right. Breakfast."
"Hot mush? Yuck," I said to myself. Apparently, I also said it aloud. But luckily nobody else could keep shut either.
"No, not hot mush." I gasp-sighed in delight, but a quick glance towards Alice told me that I was sadly mistaken. Indeed, Miss Hannigan soon after said, "Cold mush." We groaned. "And after your mush, you'll go straight to your sewing machines. There's an order of dresses to finish, even if you have to work straight through midnight."
"Yes, Miss Hannigan."
The whistle blew. "Now line up!"
We ran to our line as Bundles McCloskey entered. "Laundry! Laundry man!"
"Morning, Bundles."
"Mornin' kids. Clean sheets once a month, whether you need 'em or not." He looked around, smiling. Then he caught sight of Miss Hannigan. "Hey hey hey, Aggie. How's the prettiest gal south of 14th street?" I rolled my eyes as I watched them flirt. Pathetic, especially since the orphanage was north of 14th street.
Rosie placed her hand on my shoulder and diverted my attention to Annie climbing into the laundry basket. She had hatched an idea, and it might actually work.
"Oh Bundles, get outta here with that laundry!" Miss Hannigan said in a girlish voice.
I wheeled the basket over to Bundles, whispering to Annie, "Good luck."
"Back at you, July Summer-Month."
I guess that needs explanation. About a month ago, Annie had decided she would give us all last names—except for herself, of course, because she had one, somewhere—and mine was "Summer-month." Pepper's was "Salt," by the way.
It was nice know a friend was gonna be okay for a while.
"So long, gorgeous—and Merry Christmas!" Bundles rolled the laundry—and Annie—out.
"Huh, you call this clean, Annie," Miss Hannigan said, inspecting the floors after Bundles had gone. "This place is like a pigsty—Annie? Annie?' She searched around for the missing brat.
"Annie ain't here," we chorused.
"W-What do you mean, 'Annie ain't here'?" Miss Hannigan demanded.
"She just left with Mr. Bundles," Tessie taunted.
"In the laundry basket," Molly added.
"B-B-Bundles?" Miss Hannigan stood in utter shock for a few seconds before screeching "Police! Police!", blowing her whistle, and running out.
"No more hard-knock life for Annie!" I shouted as soon as she had gone. "Lucky duck, she got away!"
"But we're gonna have to pay," Molly told me sadly.
"Gonna get our faces slapped!" Tessie and Kate groaned.
"Gonna get our knuckles rapped!" Duffy and Pepper sat down on their beds and sighed.
"It's the hard-knock life, it's the hard-knock life—IT'S THE HARD-KNOCK LIFE!"
