Spirited Away
Portion One
Meet me, Erin. I’d tell you my last name, but I don’t know it myself. I don’t know if I even have one or if I ever will have one. All I know is that I’m an orphan and I have been, since before I can remember. It’s not a good feeling, let me tell you, not knowing where you came from, or even where you're going. And it’s even harder to know that you’re never going to go anywhere at all. I’m fourteen and I live in the Stonewall orphanage. Doesn’t sound to good does it? Well you have no idea. I’ve lived here my whole life apart from the brief spans where I’d leave go to a family and then, like always, I’d come back, every time with tear stained cheeks and a broken heart.
I’ve had many families over the years, less and less as time progressed and I got older. No one wants to adopt a fourteen-year-old girl. Everyone wants a baby someone they can raise to be their own, someone that they can trick into believing that they’re their actually parents. Unless I was to get amnesia any time soon, that wasn’t going to happen to me. Sometimes I would wonder what it would be like if I had parents, someone who loved me for who I was, someone to take care of me, better than the lousy people at Stonewall. Of course there was nothing wrong with Stonewall, it was a fine orphanage, I had a roof over my head and all, it just… wasn’t a home.
“Erin!” A call from the door snapped me out of my reverie, “Open up this door this instant!”
I sighed. It was nurse Greenfield, “Coming!” I called. I hopped up off my lumpy mattress, it was to 'ugh' to be called a bed and frankly it didn’t feel like one. I took my time walking towards the door; I could hear nurse Greenfield tapping her shoe impatiently on the hardwood floor. I finally managed to reach the door and I pulled it open. The door creaked on its hinges and threatened to fall off completely.
I looked up; nurse Greenfield was a good two feet taller than me. Not knowing my own height I couldn’t tell you hers, the last time I had measurde myself was at least three years ago when I was living with the Wendell’s.
They were a nice couple, up until Mrs. Wendell got pregnant and decided that she didn’t need a fill in anymore. Yes, that’s right, I was a fill in. of all the things in this world I was just a fill in until a real kid could come along. I was a real kid! When I had found out that I would be going back to the orphanage I was ready to rip their heads off and skin them alive; I would have done it to, except that if I had I probably would never have been adopted ever again and that was the last thing that I wanted to happen. Oh, but don’t think I left with out my say. I said some pretty nasty things to those two, nasty enough that Mrs. Wendell fainted, I was super proud of that moment. Then after I had said all I could I turned on my heel and walked away with my head held high, which is more that I can say for the Wendell’s. But they were just one family and I wasn’t about to let them get to me.
“Yes, nurse Greenfield?” I asked slightly sarcastically.
Nurse Greenfield held a basket of what looked like clothes. It was washing day. One pile of clothes was clean, while the other one (form what I could tell of the stench) wasn’t. Nurse Greenfield picked some clothes off the clean pile and pushed them into my hands, “washing?” she asked.
I nodded and turned back to my mattress, I placed my clean clothes on my dresser and grabbed the clothes in my washing basket a carefully placed them in nurse Greenfield’s basket.
“Anything else?” she asked with an annoyed expression, her lips were pursed and she held the basket as far away form her as possible, clearly the smell was bothering her.
I shook my head. She nodded and walked away. As soon as I had the door closed I burst into a roll of laughter and fell to the floor. Two weeks of tuna fish salad were currently encased in my washing. I was a bit hungry from lack of food but it was completely and utterly worth it, just to see her face. When you’ve been here as long as I have you can’t help but play with the nurses minds. To avoid the smell form completely contaminating my room I had left the window open all day and night for the duration of the tunas stay. I didn’t much like tuna, but I didn’t like to waste food, no matter how terrible it tasted.
I got up off the floor and walked towards my dresser. I took my clothes and placed them in the drawers. I didn’t have many clothes. I had a school uniform that I wore everyday from Monday to Friday, mostly because that was all the orphanage could afford. And I had the few items that I had received when various families had taken me in, but over the course of time, most of those items had become to small or worn out. I had a pair of jeans and two tops that I wore every weekend. Hey, this wasn’t Hollywood!
I’ve had many families over the years, less and less as time progressed and I got older. No one wants to adopt a fourteen-year-old girl. Everyone wants a baby someone they can raise to be their own, someone that they can trick into believing that they’re their actually parents. Unless I was to get amnesia any time soon, that wasn’t going to happen to me. Sometimes I would wonder what it would be like if I had parents, someone who loved me for who I was, someone to take care of me, better than the lousy people at Stonewall. Of course there was nothing wrong with Stonewall, it was a fine orphanage, I had a roof over my head and all, it just… wasn’t a home.
“Erin!” A call from the door snapped me out of my reverie, “Open up this door this instant!”
I sighed. It was nurse Greenfield, “Coming!” I called. I hopped up off my lumpy mattress, it was to 'ugh' to be called a bed and frankly it didn’t feel like one. I took my time walking towards the door; I could hear nurse Greenfield tapping her shoe impatiently on the hardwood floor. I finally managed to reach the door and I pulled it open. The door creaked on its hinges and threatened to fall off completely.
I looked up; nurse Greenfield was a good two feet taller than me. Not knowing my own height I couldn’t tell you hers, the last time I had measurde myself was at least three years ago when I was living with the Wendell’s.
They were a nice couple, up until Mrs. Wendell got pregnant and decided that she didn’t need a fill in anymore. Yes, that’s right, I was a fill in. of all the things in this world I was just a fill in until a real kid could come along. I was a real kid! When I had found out that I would be going back to the orphanage I was ready to rip their heads off and skin them alive; I would have done it to, except that if I had I probably would never have been adopted ever again and that was the last thing that I wanted to happen. Oh, but don’t think I left with out my say. I said some pretty nasty things to those two, nasty enough that Mrs. Wendell fainted, I was super proud of that moment. Then after I had said all I could I turned on my heel and walked away with my head held high, which is more that I can say for the Wendell’s. But they were just one family and I wasn’t about to let them get to me.
“Yes, nurse Greenfield?” I asked slightly sarcastically.
Nurse Greenfield held a basket of what looked like clothes. It was washing day. One pile of clothes was clean, while the other one (form what I could tell of the stench) wasn’t. Nurse Greenfield picked some clothes off the clean pile and pushed them into my hands, “washing?” she asked.
I nodded and turned back to my mattress, I placed my clean clothes on my dresser and grabbed the clothes in my washing basket a carefully placed them in nurse Greenfield’s basket.
“Anything else?” she asked with an annoyed expression, her lips were pursed and she held the basket as far away form her as possible, clearly the smell was bothering her.
I shook my head. She nodded and walked away. As soon as I had the door closed I burst into a roll of laughter and fell to the floor. Two weeks of tuna fish salad were currently encased in my washing. I was a bit hungry from lack of food but it was completely and utterly worth it, just to see her face. When you’ve been here as long as I have you can’t help but play with the nurses minds. To avoid the smell form completely contaminating my room I had left the window open all day and night for the duration of the tunas stay. I didn’t much like tuna, but I didn’t like to waste food, no matter how terrible it tasted.
I got up off the floor and walked towards my dresser. I took my clothes and placed them in the drawers. I didn’t have many clothes. I had a school uniform that I wore everyday from Monday to Friday, mostly because that was all the orphanage could afford. And I had the few items that I had received when various families had taken me in, but over the course of time, most of those items had become to small or worn out. I had a pair of jeans and two tops that I wore every weekend. Hey, this wasn’t Hollywood!