Chapter 1 - Sarah

Krae bounced his ball agains the ground while walking in the ally behind his house. It was hard to find a way to entertain himself most of the time. He ended up just playing with his ball in the ally a lot. He knew the ally pretty weel because of this. Watch your step when you walk out of the door, look out for glass from next door, don't run into the stacks of boxes or garbange, and don't go near the public street. But he thought slomething looked a bit weird to him today. It wasn't the ground or any glass, but the boxes looked a bit weird. They were always stacked really neatly, but they looked messy today. So while he was playing outside, he seemed to pay extra attention to the boxes.

At some point while he was outside, he thought he heard a strange sound come from the boxes. So, he looked through them and he saw something. He moved the boxes and saw that there was a girl hiding there. It looked like she was sleeping.

"Hello?" Krae said to see if she was awake.

Her head jerked to look up at him. She looked about his age and she seemed to have not taken a bath in at least two days. She looked like she had recently been crying. All in all, the way she looked made Krae feel bad for her, for whatever happened to her.

Krae smiled. "Hi, there," he said. "My name is Krae. What's yours?"

She seemed surprised that he talked to her. Maybe she hadn't met very many friendly people in her life.

She hesitated a few seconds. "I'm... My n-name is... S-Sarah," she said.

Krae gave her a really big smile. "Do you want some help?" he asked. "My mom will cook you something to eat. She's a good cook. And we can prepare a bath for you. And my mom can also clean your clothes for you." Krae tended to get excited when he met other kids.

"Um," Sarah said. "I don't know."

"I'm sure hiding in a stack of boxes is so much better than being in a nice cozy house," Krae teased. He reached out a hand to offer to hlep her up. Sarah brought her hand up slowly until it touched his and he pulled her up.

She was wearing a beat-up blanket over her clothes. Even so, the little bit of clothing Krae could see looked like it would look very nice if it was clean.

Krae led Sarah to his house, holding her hand the whole time, almost as if he was making sure she wouldn't run away or something.

When the walked through the door, Krae yelled, "Mom, I'm back! And I brought a friend with me."

A very pretty woman with long, curly, dark brown hair came into the room. "Hi, sweetie," she said with a smile. "Who's this little cutie?"

"This is Sarah," Krae said. "I was wondering if we could give her something to eat and let her take a bath. She was in the ally sleeping in that stack of boxes."

His mother walked over to Sarah and looked at her. "Krae, can you please go start a hot bath for her? I'll give her something to eat." She turned to Sarah. "You look like you haven't even eaten in days. Poor girl..."

Sarah felt really welcome in Krae's house. His mom, who told her to call her Laura, made sure she was squeaky clean, cleaned her clothes until they were as clean as her, and fed her so much so that she felt she would never be able to eat again. She even offered for her to stay the night there.

"Would you like dinner?" Laura asked Sarah later that evening.

"No, thank you," Sarah said. "I am still completely full from the first meal you gave me."

Laura smiled. "Fair enough. But you will be staying the night, won't you? I don't want you to be sleeping in anyone's trash again."

Sarah let slip a small smile. "Okay."

While Krae and his mother were eating, they were finding out everything about Sarah that they possibly could.

"How old are you?"

"9."

"Where are your parents?"

"Home."

"Why aren't you home?"

"They are unable to take care of me."

"Why?"

"They are in... a really bad state where they can't even take care of themselves."

"Isn't there anyone to take care of them or you?"

"No. They are my only family. And besides, the doctors tell me to do what I can for them and then stay out of the house as much as possible so I don't get what they have."

"You poor thing!" Laura said. She threw her arms around Sarah. "Anything you have to leave the house, you just come straight here, okay? We will take care of you."

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