A young girl, about 11 yrs. old sat at the edge of the canal, looking at her reflection. Long,

brown hair hit her chest and let it covered half of her face. Tearstains could be seen on her

face, and her eyes looked really puffy. A bruise lay on her right arm but was hidden by her dark blue sweater.

She didn't look really rich; she only wore a plaid skirt with a sweater. Grey stockings and flat,

dark dress shoes. A frown looked back at her in the reflection. She remembered when she

could smile, but that was a long time ago.

Flashback

"Daddy are you okay?" the young girl frowned seeing her dad sad.

"I'll be fine, I promise." The man touched his daughter's head and kissed her forehead, "I'm going for a walk, I'll be back in a while.

"Will you talk to mommy?" the girl looked up with hopeful eyes.

"I will, promise." He opened the door and went out into the night. The daughter felt happy, for

a while her parents were fighting and she wanted them to smile again.

(End flashback)

'But that's all gone now dad.' She thought. The girl walked on towards the alleyway between the market and bread bakery.

Bitter, cold wind hit her face and reminded her that winter comes soon.

Last night her mom started to drink again. Who knew, it wasn't such a surprise to Caterina, with her mom being all depressed. And a bit too depressed.

She started dating an accountant, who got fired because of his bad attitude. But before all that he was found doing drugs in the back.

So much for a good man at your side.

He started drinking, and soon got drunk almost all the time. Caterina tried to convince her mom that her Dad wasn't completely gone.

But the mom was thoroughly convinced he was gone. Being bankrupt was hard, that's why her dad had to leave for America.

She cried all night until she wanted to escape her sorrow, in a way that really affected her daughter.

This had been going on for four years and last night was when Caterina had it.

Caterina and her mom just got settled in their new apartment. There wasn't enough money to pay for the house; and there wasn't enough to pay for the tuition for school.

It seemed that the baking and selling cakes wasn't enough for the two. Mom started smoking.

Caterina wrote her father the new address they had, she needed the time now before mom started giving her whole speech on how dad was gone forever and will never come back.

But that night her mom was abused by the guy she was dating. Earlier that day he came home with a half an empty bottle of vodka. He didn't come to the bed; he went straight for his girlfriend.

After, loud moments of kicking and screaming she fell unconscious in the kitchen. Her head was bruised with the pan her boyfriend hit her with.

The whole time Caterina hid in her closet, hoping he would just stop.

He went upstairs and went for the little girl. This time he wasn't going to stop, not until he got what he wanted.

This time he was really hung-over; Caterina couldn't stop what he was doing. Her screaming didn't help anything. She felt him tugging her skirt off; it was disgusting in her mind.

The hurt he was causing her, she never experienced having someone forcing her to do something she didn't want. Especially when it was really wrong.

But before he could do anything else, she was able to make the lamp fall on top of him.

Pulling him off she hit him with one of her dictionaries (which was really thick) and ran out of the door.

Here she decided she wasn't coming back, she was going to find another place to live.

Now she was here walking around Venice, thinking she could live a life without her mom and her hung over boyfriend.

She wished her dad would just come back.

Flashback

The suitcases were being put in the car; it was a beautiful morning in Venice.

(Spoken in Italian)

"My plane trip isn't in a while but I want to be there early mom. Yes, I know. Mom I want to start a new life for my family. It will be fine, okay? Alright I'll talk to you later." The man closed the phone and turned to his crying daughter.

"Daddy, I want to come with you," the girl dug her head in her father's stomach, " I want to stay with you."

The father pulled his daughter away and bent down to her height. "

I'm going so we can start a new life somewhere else. Because as a child, you need to go out more and explore the world." He tapped her nose.

"Promise you will write?" she asked hopefully. " I promise. And I have something for you." The

father pulled out a golden chain with a heart at its bottom.

The necklace was golden with an outlined heart and inside hung a small flat heart shape that filled the outlined part.

On the flat part was something written on it, front: I'm here for you; on the back it read Love Always, Dad.

The daughter looked at it with happy eyes. "Whenever you think I'm not here for you, just remember I'm always in here." At this he pointed to her heart.

They hugged each other, "My Caterina."

(End flashback)

Caterina thought her heart stopped and felt the world had come to an end, she felt for her necklace.

'Holy crap I thought I lost you.' She sighed and held up her necklace, she would've never lived if she left without grabbing it.

The front of the necklace flashed at the dim light of the sun, the sun, it was setting.

She tucked the chain under her shirt, "I need to find a place to sleep." The alleyway seemed to go on forever.

Caterina took another right turn and came to the edge of a walkway. To the left was a fisherman's storage. At the right of it held a barrel of dead fish.

'Phew it smells' she thought.

'They keep these things at the back of the shop?' she asked herself. Noticing the door was locked she went around the storage looking for a safe place to sleep in.

At the back she saw a big gondola covered with a thick sheet.

The boat still had its golden point at the front and the wood was still shining, but the back

seat had its cover ripped and a big hole shown at the bottom.

The sun had set already and the clouds started coming in. Caterina looked at it, ' well its better than nothing,' she thought to herself.

Climbing in, the boat rocked a little, she took the sheet and covered the gondola and herself.

Shivering, she lay in the seat of the gondola curled into a ball.

The smell of fish came back to her again. 'My clothes are going to smell like fish.' But she didn't care, as long as she was safe and away from where she had been.

The warmth of an orphanage sounded nice, but she wanted to be free, free from what happened to her, free to be able to go to where her dad was living.

Not thinking of tomorrow, she thought of her mom, the things that happened today, and the

guy her mom was dating.

"Your father's gone, he'll never be here again!" the woman screamed, tears reaching her cheeks.

"He isn't coming back, he isn't coming back." She started to whisper.

At this Caterina promised she would never talk about her life to anyone. No one would know her past life. Then, she closed her eyes and fell asleep.

Morning

The sun started to rise across the city and reflect the buildings shadows. Everything was quiet and calm until about six o'clock in the morning.

The oven in the bakery started its work and let out a smell letting the people of Venice know fresh bread was made.

The smell came over the market and the path the shops crossed.

At the back of the shops Caterina woke up to the smell of fresh bread. Weakly, she opened her eyes and forgot where she was, but then remembered the things that happened last night.

Getting up, her stomach started to growl.

"Oh no, forgot to grab food at the house." She was in such a hurry she didn't realize she left without grabbing food.

Walking through the alleyway, she finally reached the place between the market and bakery.

The fresh scent of bread and coffee went through her body, making her feel warm, and hungrier.

Hiding behind the floor sign of the bakery, she watched as doctors and early workers sipped their early drinks and ate their éclairs, croissants, and Danish.

It reminded her of her dad, the way he would wake up early in the morning and set out an éclair for her, just as a treat if she ate her breakfast, and she always did.

Caterina would give him a chocolate smile as he laughed at her dirty mouth, and sip at his espresso and ate his breakfast.

Caterina blinked back tears, a young girl about her age started walking out of the bakery.

As she passed by she held two thick, sticks of bread in her bag.

The smell whipped the young girl's taste buds; her stomach ached for the bread in the bag,

and without knowing what she was doing Caterina snatched the stick of bread out of the bag

and started to run.

Behind her she heard the girl calling for her, "Hey come back, wait!"

Cold air rushed throughout Caterina's body, she couldn't help but run. But where would she go?

Running across the canal bridge she went to the walkways through the houses. She reached the end of the passage and ran to the right of her.

Further she went until she saw an abandoned church. The place had a fence around with the words "Caution" all over it, the grass was dead and still, and the building looked like it really needed a paint job.

Still moving on she jumped the fence and ran into the church.

Thankfully it was open. Closing the door of the church she saw a large crucifix with Jesus on it.

"I'm sorry to be coming in like this, but please let me stay for a while," she told Him, looking at the statue, hoping He would forgive her for stealing.

The church was cold and the windows were broken, there were eight sets each on both right and left sides. They came down from the tallest to shortest.

The biggest one on the left overlooked the sea where all the boats sailed and the huge

buildings could be seen; the biggest one on the right overlooked the little islands that the

landowners claimed for themselves, here is where the sunset was seen.

Above Caterina was a stain glass window showed the angel Gabriel with his white robe flowing. behind him leading children to their Father.

Around Caterina she could see the rows and rows of pews with benches in them. A red wooden door was located to the right of the church.

From the rotten walls Caterina could see it was a stairway leading to a room. It was possibly

the place where the Sisters and the Priests stayed. The church was probably an old, local

Convent.

But Caterina didn't have time to enjoy seeing the scenery of the church. She ran to the nearest confessional box and hid there.

She could feel her heart beating and held on tightly to the bread stick. Her breathing was hard and she wanted so badly to wish this never happened.

The doors of the church opened, in came the girl with the bread sticks.

"I know you're in here!" she yelled, "I saw you come in." Caterina peeked through the curtain of the confessional.

The girl had long brown hair like Caterina, which was covered at the top with a black beanie; she wore a thick light brown sweater, under that she had on a light blue sweatshirt.

Her jeans hugged around her legs and loosened as it got to her knees and reached her sneakers.

Walking past the pews she called for her, "Look I'm not mad at you or anything I just want to talk to you."

Caterina learned it hard to trust people, so she hesitated to come out. But then again she was only about her age and she sounded nice.

"Come on out, I'm not going to hurt you." Caterina waited, she didn't want to come out; she

was going to wait until the girl left. But it was too late for that because the bread girl came to

the first confessional and opened the curtain so fast.