Dark Days
Marty lived at Miss Priscilla's Boarding school for many days. The days turned into weeks and the weeks then became months. Most of those days were dreary and dark, but her friendship with Megan made it bearable. Marty loved to read, so she lived for the days she got to read books and enjoy school work on very rare occasions.
Christmas-time came and went and all the other little girls got visitors, but not Marty. Kiki never came to see her. Kiki never even sent letters. Most of the little girls had gone home with their families for the holidays, but not Marty. She had to stay and help Miss Priscilla. She was a very sad and lonely little girl. It was hard when Megan was away. Megan had become her best friend.
"Margaret, go upstairs and strip all the beds. We must wash all the linens in scalding water," Miss Priscilla ordered.
"Yes, M'am," Marty said softly. She rushed upstairs to do the work. She hated doing constant chores. She wanted to play and dance. She wanted to go outside and dance in the snowflakes.
When she got upstairs to her bedroom to remove the bedding from the cots, she found that her suitcase had been pulled out from under her bed. Her dresses lay in the floor in a heap. All her pretty dresses - ruined! They had been ripped up and destroyed!
Marty was sure she knew who did it! It had to be Rebecca and Hannah. They hated her! They despised her and her pretty dresses!
Tears filled Marty's eyes. The dresses her mother had sewed for her were torn to tiny pieces. A part of her mama was gone. But then she saw a tiny hand sticking out of the open suitcase!
Sara Beth!
*Ohhh please! Ohhh please, let her be alright!* Marty silently prayed.
Marty frantically rushed towards the suitcase. She reached for it, bumping her head under the cot as she retrieved Sara Beth, pulling her from it. She was safe for now. She assumed those mean girls had been more interested in the dresses. Even so, she still did not like Hannah and Rebecca.
She hugged Sara Beth to her chest."What are we going to do?" she whispered. "It's just me here all alone now, Sara Beth. Those mean girls don't like me."
She sighed softly as she held the doll in her hands and waited. She kissed her doll's head, soothing her golden yarn hair. "Just me and you now," Marty murmured.
She quickly put Sara Beth back safely in the suitcase. She took her tattered dresses and put them back in, too. They were all she had of her Mommy even if she couldn't wear them now. *There has to be a way to fix them,* Marty thought.
"MARGARET ANNE!" Miss Priscilla bellowed from downstairs.
"Ohhh no! Ohhh no!" Marty gasped. She jumped up after closing her suitcase and stuffing it under the bed.
She began to remove the sheets from all the cots in a hurry, trying not to trip. Marty hurried as quickly as possible, carrying the sheets down the stairs toward the kitchen. She helped Miss Priscilla place them in the steaming, sudsy water to cleanse them, her flesh becoming flaming, fiery-red in the process. "We must kill all the germs," Miss Priscilla said. "Scrub them harder!"
Marty scrubbed and scrubbed until her hands were raw. Tears burned her eyes from the strong soap. "They're clean, Miss Priscilla! Please... I need to stop," Marty begged as the school master insisted she keep working, repeatedly scrubbing the sheets.
"We must rid this place of the filth!" Miss Priscilla insisted. She made Marty wash the sheets out twice, then soak them in scalding water. After they were clean to her satisfaction, they had to be rung out and hung up to dry.
After the sheets were hung, there were more chores to finish. The boarding house had to be clean from top to bottom. Miss Priscilla said if she didn't hurry, she wouldn't get to read her book. Marty wanted to read for awhile, so she worked harder, trying to get everything done before bedtime.
Finally she was finished. She crawled into bed. There was just enough light to see her book pages through the window in the dying sunshine. As she turned the pages, her fingertips cracked and bled. She had worked until she was wounded. It was a terrible life to live, but it was hers.
Marty's only pleasure seemed to be from her book; that and Megan's friendship. The good thing was that even though she had to work hard, she still got to read. It was the only thing left for her to enjoy. Reading kept her mind off the state of her life and all the sorrow. She lay on her cot and let herself get lost in the satisfaction of the story. It was exciting to find out what the characters were doing and how they found happiness in times of need.
In the story, there was a handsome prince. He rescued the young princess and protected her from the mean, evil dragon. *The dragon is just like Aunt Kiki,* Marty was thinking as she let out a little yawn.
*One day I will meet MY handsome prince. He'll marry me... and we will live happily ever after in our crystal castle,* Marty thought dreamily.
She hoped that her prince would rescue her from her dreary existence. He would come to take her away from Miss Priscilla's Boarding School forever. She didn't like it... and she especially didn't like Hannah and Rebecca. They were trying to make Marty's life a living hell.