Author's Note: Hi! Enjoy. This chapter is almost the same as the original but for the people who never read this chapter before this is new I guess.

I passed through a town that was the complete opposite to the town that the orphanage was in. There was no smoke that filled the air and no liquor aroma. The sky was blue all the time and the lives of the townspeople werecalm and peaceful. It gave me some hope that this might be the town my family lived in or any sort of clue. I was on the streets... again but this time it was different. I was the only person so people noticed me more. In the town before I sometimes saw creepy men and women in boxes, but here it was different. Steeling food was uncommon here and I learned that the hard way.

I took some chocolate and bread that I would finish in less than a day. It was snowing and I was freezing to death. I stole from this store before, but it always seemed too easy. I took precautions here. I took a large bite of the chocolate bar (oh it was soooooooo good by the way), but I felt someone grabbing my wrist tightly. I turned around slowly and what I found was an angry shop owner that was red with anger.

I stared at him in pure horror. I never got caught before.

"You filth, you've been stealing from my shop for days!" he yelled at me.

"I'm sorry,'' I moaned. A bunch of people came over to the shop and chatter started.

"Sorry isn't enough you little bitch." He hit my arm with such force I cried in pain.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Now tears were coming from my eyes. That man was evil. Some people in world are so cruel and so stubborn that they would hurt a little girl. He hit my arm again, but this time I screamed.

"Stop hurting her Ben!" yelled a woman. She walked into the middle of the circle. I was on the snowy, white ground crying in pain.

"Why should I?" He said coolly.

"She doesn't deserve it." replied the woman. Her hands were on her hips. She must have been in her early thirties but when I was seven years old I thought all adults were old. She had short brown hair and beautiful brown eyes.She bent down to see if I was ok.

"Are you ok?" she asked me in a motherly tone.

I looked into her dark brown eyes and nodded my head. I wiped my tears away from my own eyes.

She saw by how I looked that I was a loner. It was a life that was broken, and damned; an orphan's life.

"Come with me." She said. I followed her away from the store and the crowd of people. We were at the door of a small bookshop.

We walked into the bookshop. It looked like a quaint shop but it was big with many books on the shelves. There was a staircase leading to a door.

"Would you like to stay with me?" the lady asked me.

"Sure," I replied immediately. What did I have to lose? Not much.

"What's your name?" she put her coat in the desk and locked the door leading to the book shop.

"Rachel,"

"Alyssa," she smiled at me. I tried to smile back.

She motioned near the staircase and I followed to the door. It led to a room with many other doors where Alyssa lived.

"This is your room," she opened a door to a small room where there was a bed in the middle and a dresser on the side. "My room is next door." I put my backpack down and laid down on the bed. I closed my eyes and couldn't believe how nice it felt to be on a bed when I'd been lying down on the cold snowy, ground.

"Thanks," I sighed and wanted to fall asleep.

"Let's go into town tomorrow," Alyssa's voice was still soft and motherly. "We need to buy you some things. I can't believe you don't have a coat. You must be freezing. Good night."

For the first time in a long while I feel asleep peacefully.

I woke up early, smelling at wonderful taste. I walked to the small kitchen finding Alyssa in a bath robe and fuzzy slippers making pancakes. She was humming a song under her breath

"Good morning," she said joyfully.

"Hi," I said. I

"How's was your night?" she asked me.

"Wonderful," I said. "Those pancakes look great," they were chocolate chip pancakes. I ate them very fast. "Yum,"

"I'm glad you like them," she said hapily.

"Do you think you could teach me how to read?" I asked her suddenly. I was seven and I should of known by now how to. I also wanted to read that letter so badly.

"Ok, I thought you already knew. I'll teach you how to write too." She replied.

After breakfast we went into the small shops in town. The shop windows were all ready for Christmas. There were toy trains, nutcrackers, and spinning doll ballerinas in window of the shop we went to. Alyssa bought me a warm fuzzy blue coat. She also bought me some nice shoes and a couple of outfits. I didn't have any shoes because from all that walking the shoes gave me blisters so i got rid of my old shoes. She treated me like the mother I wanted and I was the daughter she wished she had.

"You look lovely," she smiled at me when I was in one of my new outfits.

"Can we go back to the book shop?" I asked impationaly.

"You really want to learn." Alyssa remarked, surprised. She probably nver met a child that was so eager to learn.

We walked into the book shop. There was a couch near the many book shelves. Alyssa put her coat on the desk where the cash register was, locked the bookshop doorand picked up at book at jumped onto the couch. I followed her.

"It takes awhile at first," she warned me. "So don't get frustrated."

"I'm a quick learner," I bragged. She saw the glint in my eyes that I didn't mean to boast.

"Will see," she grinned.

Author's Note: I had no idea where to draw the line and say this is the end of the chapter. Please review!

Next chapter: A week later: (Rachel knows how to read and write now. She's a quick learner...) Rachel tells Alyssa about the letter and finally discovers the past she been procrastinating on.