I walked down the road in the still dark night. It was nearly midnight, and not a single vehicle was on the road. The buildings on both sides of the road were tall and dark, with no sign of life. Four blocks ahead, there was one building with a few lights on and windows open. That was my destination – the orphanage.

Well, I’m not really an orphan. As far as I know, both my parents are alive. My father is an alcoholic and he divorced my mother barely a year after I was born. Being a drunkard, there was no way he could take care of me even if he wanted to. My mother is in a mental asylum, as the divorce caused her to go mad.

Instead of giving me foster parents, the judge decided to put me in an orphanage, thinking that I would receive better care there. Ha! If he could see me now, he would die laughing!

I share a room with this seventeen year old girl, named Amy. Her companionship is one of the few things that stops me from running away. If you’re wondering why, let me tell you; the orphanage is horrible! The food is stale, the clothes are tattered hand-me-downs, and our caretakers make us do everything, from cleaning the toilets to washing the clothes, from wiping the windows to cutting the grass outside!

Once a week, I would jump out from my first floor window and go for a walk down the dark roads behind the orphanage. I managed to do this without hurting myself, by climbing down the pipes outside the window and jumping onto the soft grass.

About a kilometre away from the orphanage is a small lake. I sit at the edge of the lake and throw stones into the still, cold water, or look at the hundreds of stars in the sky.

This was what I was doing that night, and was returning to the orphanage. Just before I reached, I saw something glittering in the faint moonlight. I bent down to pick it up, but I was unable to see it properly. From the feel of it, it was some sort of necklace. I decide to study it after I returned to the orphanage.

I climbed up the pipes and crept into my room. Amy, of course, knew about my little adventures and had become my best friend. I switched on my torch instead of the tube light, to avoid attracting attention from the caretakers.

Amy studied the necklace, and gasped. She told me it was a gold necklace with rubies and emeralds embedded in it. At that time, I had no idea what were rubies and emeralds, let alone jewellery.

Amy told me to keep the necklace hidden from everyone, and to hide it in a good place. So we crawled under the bed, lifted a wooden plank, and hid it underneath.


It has been seven years, but the necklace is still hidden.