Oh Lord! It was soup again! I threw the spoon down angrily
into my thin paper bowl. The soup spilled over and splashed onto the
dirty tabletop.

"If you ain't gonna eat it then at least give it to us who are!"
Someone yelled at me from down the long table.

"Shut up!" I yelled back at them, damn cocky bastard's, think they
own the whole place.

Only two more years and then I could leave. By law, when you turn eighteen you are considered an adult and you can leave the orphanage
forever! I smiled thinking of when the time would come. Sometimes kids
that were sixteen or seventeen ran away from here and lived on the
streets. But I look at the bums sleeping in alleyways and benches in
the park and that is definitely not an option for me. I'd
rather sleep on a thin creaky bed with dingy sheets than a dirty
sidewalk. Thank you very much.

So here I am. Sixteen. Living in an orphanage. It had been five years
since those two men came to talk to me about some school, what was it
called again? No matter, anyway, they told me that I was a witch (Yah,
I know, weird huh?) And that I could go to the school and "Nurture and
grow the power that is within me". Didn't they realize I was
penniless, parentless and (according to me) not a witch? Obviously not
because when they found out that I had no money what-so-ever
they hightailed out of here pretty quick.

So here I sit five years later at this dirty soup covered table. I
was pulled out of my past reverie by a tug on my thin shirt. I looked
down into the big blue eyes of Chrissy.

"Shawlee, will you wead me a book?" she clutched the little stuffed
bear closer to her chest. I smiled down at her and bent down and
picked her up from the floor.

"Of course I will! I always have time to read a book to my little
Chrissy" I said as I walked down the drab hall to the 'Rec. Room'.
Plopping down onto the old sofa I picked a book from off the shelf. I
put my arm around her as I read her 'My Pet Goat'.

Chrissy was only five years old and her body was already
deteriorating from AIDS. Her small thin frame was leaning against mine
as my body's warmth seeped onto her. I always seemed to be warm all
the time, even during the coldest of nights. She was asleep before I
even finished the book. I sat on the sofa with little Chrissy snuggled
up against my side. I leaned over to the shelf and grabbed the first
book I could reach. Settling back against the sofa, I flipped the book
open to the middle and read:

--Constance shoved Tony away, "No Tony, we mustn't! Not here, not
now. Our Father's are at war with each other and if they knew of our
secret love then not only would they tear us apart but they would
force you to marry Louise and me to marry Charles."


But Constance looked back into the deep green pools that were Tony's
eyes and felt herself becoming weak. She ran into his arms and
clutched his chest tightly. Tony only smoothed her soft blonde hair
and whispered into her ear. "Darling Constance, we mustn't let our
Father's come between what we have. You and I together, we have
something that no one else has! A love that was pre-destined, a love
that is deeper than any ocean or purer than any red rose." He lifted
her chin up to his face and lightly kissed her swollen lips. Tony felt
himself losing control again, he reached behind her and pushed her
firmly against his hard body. Constance looked back up into his eyes
and brought her hands up to his jet black hair and ran her fingers
threw the soft tendrils.


"Oh darling Tony, I love you so much!" she slammed her mouth onto his
and hungrily kissed him as if it were the last kiss they would ever
share.


Tony could feel the warmth in his groin burning hotter and hotter. He
held his hands at Constance's waist and slowly let his hands glide
down to squeeze her arse.

Constance felt Tony's hands move down her body until they firmly
grasped her bottom, she moaned deeply into his mouth.

Her moan was his undoing, Tony lifted Constance from the ground and
gently placed her onto the cool green grass. Fumbles and caresses and
bites and sucking, they were suddenly both aware that they were both
naked lying together on the grass. Constance once against lifted her
big blue eyes to Tony's deep green ones and she felt him slip
insi–'

"Charlotte? What are you reading?". I was startled out of my uhh . .
. "Light reading" and looked up to see my best friend standing above
me.

"Daniel you scared me!" I whispered harshly to him as Chrissy was
still sleeping at my side. He handed me a pillow from the end of the
couch and I sat up and laid Chrissy's head on the pillow.

We walked to the big front window and stood staring out at the busy
L.A. street.

"Let's get out of here Charlotte" Daniel said still looking out the window.

"Where do you want to go?" I asked.

"Away from here" he answered angrily, but then his face softened "We
could pass for eighteen. We could go down to the train station and buy
a ticket and go anywhere in the U.S. We could go to the wide-open
fields of Texas or to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Hell, I bet if we
went to Canada we could get a passport and travel anywhere in the
world" he turned to me and I stood there facing him "All we have to do
is make that first step out of here Charlotte. That first step is all
it takes to leave this crummy place." He grabbed my shoulders and
asked almost pleadingly "Please Charlotte, come with me. I want you
there with me. You're like family to me."

Daniel knew what it took for me to soften. Because whenever anybody
says the "Family" word in reference to me, they are either talking
about my lack-of or about foster care. So when someone says those
lines of "You're like family" it turns my heart to butter and I
can't help but feel at least somewhat loved. I looked up into Daniel's
face. Daniel with his curly brown hair and his light green eyes. I
knew he would make sure we were safe, I also knew that he would do
whatever power he had in him to keep me out of harms way. But if we
were both caught, they would not send us back here. Oh no, they would
send us to the Juvenile Penitentiary. And that, my friends, is a place
I would rather not be sent to.

"And what if we get caught?" I crossed my arms and looked at Daniel
scrutinizingly "Then it's Juvy for us Dan. Do you really want to go
there? Because I am really not wanting to book a first-class ticket
there either." He shook my shoulders softly.

"Don't worry Charlotte, we wont get caught".

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Daniel's plan was foolproof. We would leave during the afternoon and
walk fifteen blocks to the train station. Since we didn't have any
money we would have to umm . . . well, we would have to take it from
people on the way. I want to say right now that I am against
any forms of stealing, even if it is to better our lives by
getting out of Los Angeles. But if we didn't, we wouldn't have any
money at all. Of course I didn't do any of the pickpocketing, it was
all Daniel. Daniel had lived on the streets until he was fourteen, so
he thought himself "Street smart". Well, had managed to get seven
wallets with more than $200 in each. Consider ourselves lucky that we
didn't get caught. I looked down at the money he had counted out for
each of us. Grabbing it angrily I hissed.

"We are going straight to hell for this, ya know?" I looked at him
angrily. Daniel tried to keep a straight face but then burst out
laughing right in my face. He put his hand onto mine.

"I'm sorry Charlotte, but you just look so funny when you're mad.
Your hair looks more poofy and your eyes go all squinty and oh . . .
well, you just looked funny." He wiped a tear from his eye and he
continued to chuckle.

"Are we going yet?" I whipped my hand out from under his. He lifted
his hand and stared at his palm.

"Jeez Charlotte, your hands are warm. You made mine all sweaty" he
wiped his palm on the side of his pants "It's so windy out here you
should be freezing". He looked at me and then down at my hands.

It was true, I should have been cold. But in fact, I didn't feel cold
at all. In fact I felt very nice. Like my body had its own little
furnace working under my skin. I looked over at Daniel with his black
hoodie on and then at my own body that was covered by a thin t-shirt
and pair of over-washed-too-many-times jeans. Very odd, but I just
shrugged my shoulders and looked back at Daniel.

"Let's go" I said.