HTI

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w where I was bleeding from when Quetzal touched my lip. Usually, our father avoided hitting me on the face where his abuse would be visible to anyone who looked at me. But today he seemed more edgy than usu

pened. Gangs operated around the area and clashes were normal so everyone tended to stay out of their way. The only somewhat normal person in the neighborhood was Ms Alisha. She had a garden that produced the food that a

immediately vacate the place. She became almost penniless after that and ended up here. My sister and I were employed to work with her, but the pay wasn’t much because she had other workers in the fairly large garden. Other children from families in

s so they were also fending for themselves. They needed the money as much as I did. A lot of them were also uneducated eve

after only being able to pay half of the money he had stolen. When he finished serving his sentence, he ended up here and started a small illegal school because he knew that he would never be

oney. It was a public school a bit of a distance from our neighborhood so we didn’t have to pay fees but there were other expenses like bus fare, books, etc. to pay for. My father dec

were safely far away from here. Ms Alisha didn’t know it, but her garden had our most prized possession. We had a box of all our savings buried deep in the earth somewhere in ou

ut. I’ll be fine.” I said to her a

d with a shaky voice as te

cry anymore, Quetzal cried

said with a smile that was meant to make her

nd you’re bleeding.” Sh

, and you just got back from school.” I rubbed her back. I almost laughed at th

doughnut before I went to school. I’m sure you haven’t eat

the thought of her going to school without eating something no matter how small. The doughnuts had just been brought to the cooling trays so they hadn’t been counted yet which made it easier to take one for Quetzal.

ole in the play?” I ask

it up and I knew the a

es

Quetzal to join extra curricular activities, so when she told me that she had put her name down for t

grab some food and get ice cream too.

u made after your coffee shop

y morning so after our father had taken my morning pay for garbage disposal, I had to search for somethi

ore money on me and I hid it where he wouldn

he asked a

you think Nightingale h