Just until he was four years old and until his youngest sister was two years old, James Henry Trotter had a happy life. He lived peacefully with his mother and father with his four sisters in a beautiful house by the sea. Three are older than him and they're adopted.
One is twelve, one is eleven and the other is ten. One is a gypsy girl, one is a special girl and there other is a girl who's one of a kind. James has a little sister who is two years old. The gypsy is called Erika Juliet Trotter while the special girl with blonde hair is called Annika Rosaline Trotter and the special preteen is called Lynn Samantha Trotter. The little two year old is called Audrey Katrina Trotter.
There were always plenty of other children for James and little Audrey to play with, the sandy beach to run about on and the ocean to paddle in. It was a great life for a small boy and his sisters.
They had each other and their dreams to tell. Then one day, a terrible thing has happened. It happened when James' mother and father when they went to London for some shopping. An angry rhinoceros escaped from the London zoo and ate up James' mother and father. This is sad indeed.
Their own troubles were over, at least it was quick. They were dead and gone in thirty five seconds flat. James and his sisters though, their troubles were just the beginning. They now found themselves alone and frightened in a scary world.
The lovely house by the seaside had to be sold at once and now James and his sisters were now sent away to live with the two aunts.
Their names were Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker. They are both really horrible people. They started to beat James and his sisters for almost no reason at all. They made the girls wear rags. They didn't take their things away, they made them put their things in a closet. They worked from early morning till early evening. They even had to sleep on a lumpy old mattress.
This went on for three years.