The Runaway Child

My name is Savannah Roaché, but in those days it was Cunning. I was born in Brazil, with a Mum and Dad. We lived in the favela. It was stinky and dirty, and no one liked our family. We were the robbers and it was my job to steal from other people. I did have a friend, Marcia, who was very rich. I didn’t really like her because she was too much of a show-off, but it was my job to daily rob their house, so I had to bear it.

Most days I came back empty handed, because I didn’t get a chance to be alone and slip away, and when I did my Dad beat me, and my Mum just turned her back and hummed. I hate it, and hated my parents for it. I hated my Dad for beating the loving breath out of me, and my mum for turning a blind eye. I planned my run away for months.
One day I told my Mum I was going round to Marcia’s, but then went down into the capital, Brasilia. It was a long journey by foot and I knew Mum would come looking for me. But she wouldn’t come soon, I usually spend the whole day with Marcia. I grew tired shortly, and saw a truck carrying a load of cabbages stop. The engine had broken down. While the men were busy fixing it, I went in through the back, covering myself in cabbages.

I knew life on the streets would be hard and had heard rumours of a new gang, the Pirates. I decided to find them, but it wasn’t easy. I spent months begging on the streets and sleeping in the rubbish dumps. I hunted around before bed in the rubbish for something to eat if I hadn’t earned anything.

One lucky day, my clothes scratched up and stained I was begging on a gangs ground. Luckily, that gang was the Pirates. I was soon accepted for my cunning ways. But when I started to tell them my name, they wouldn’t hear of it. They said we had all had to forget our old lives. So I had a new name, Cunning Pirate.

They told me to work, but I didn’t want to. I begged for a while, until I had enough money to buy a mask. Wearing the mask I robbed the other gang members of their money and claimed I had earned it myself. I spent the time when I was supposedly working practice fighting. Soon the gang leader Mauricio told everyone to look out for the masked girl. They soon caught me at robbing and I was kicked out for being a ‘parasite.’

On my own again, I knew it would be harder this time. No one wanted to give a dirty girl, who was nine any money. It was easier to beg. I looted through rubbish dumps but day after day came up with nothing. I knew I needed a new strategy to survive. So then I decided to start my own gang.

I was well known as the masked girl so I lost the name Cunning and gave myself that name. I spread the word round the streets that the Masked Girl was looking for a new gang. I caused a lot of trouble because members of others gangs started to leave to join mine. I soon had twenty eager members, one of the largest gangs I knew. I took advantage of the number. Our gang made money by beating up other gangs, robbing them and then continually doing that until each member ran away. Soon all the gangs in Brasilia were gone, except for the old one I was a member of before.

Our numbers had also grown, due to the gangs we broke apart. Some members begged us to take them in. So I did. But then a drop-in centre started around the corner. It gave baths, clean clothes and food once a day. I commanded everyone to go. I needed them to work mornings, stealing, begging and robbing. Then in the afternoons we would all head to the drop-in centre. We would learn and get bathed. We also got a new set of clothes every time we dirtied the previous lot, which was weekly. We also got one helping of food.

I had never been to school and some of the students were doing well. But the Teacher said I outshone them all. He said I needed to go to college. I had heard about college and it sounded wonderful. But I could never pay for it. After the day the teacher told me about college, I wanted to go. I day dreamed. I would give my gang to my gang assistant, Maria. She would look after them all well, and ensure they still went to school.

Months later the Teacher wanted to speak to me alone. She told me she had found me a place in a college. It was a new college, with a low star ranking. She said it would be good. The same day I gathered a gang meeting. Telling them I was going to college, and that while I was gone Maria was in charge. They got angry, not understanding why I was abandoning them. They knew that if I did well, I wouldn’t come back. They were about to be me up, so I had to run away. I ran to the teacher. I staying in her house (it was very grand) until I was due to leave. I was heading out of the country, to England.

In England I was a new face, a new person. I barely could remember my actual name, so I called myself Savannah Roaché. I studied English. It was my dream to be a writer, to write about street kids and their daily pain. I couldn’t hire a dorm, even the Teacher couldn’t help me with that. She had to go back to the drop-in centre to work once again the next day. I thanked her very much. I rented a cheap small room. In it I only had a bed and a mini-fridge. I could use the oven downstairs. I found work in a grocery store, and occasionally, when times got hard stole food from there too. I only ate frozen foods since they were cheap and didn’t take time. All my time I spent on college.

During my college years I wrote my first novel, about my life. After my college life I had saved up enough money to rent a house. As I did so I sent my book off to many published. After a two years of sending off I got accepted. While I was sending off I worked in a clothing store. I had stopped my stealing habits. The book was out for a few years, and then a shop bought a whole bunch. It made me nearly instantly rich. I bought myself a little college. After a few months my book was a bestseller. I started getting letters sent to me from children, who could really relate to my story. They begged me to write more.

Ever since then I write stories about other street kids lives and poverty. I travel back to Brasilia and interview street kids. I pay them well, giving them more than they could earn begging in a month. Becoming a worldwide bestseller really changed me. I had a mansion, two cars and a husband that loves me well. I write during the day, and travel occasionally, mostly to Brasilia. I now have three kids. Two girls and a boy. The boy is the youngest 18 months old called Theo. The two girls are identical twins called Macy and Stacy. They go to school.

I now write and publish at least a book every two years, and get millions of pounds every time.