She was eight years old wearing long black hair the color of midnight. A sweet girl indeed she was, polite and kind and full of all the things a little girl should be full of. She scrubbed floors for payment of going to school. She crocheted linens and sold them. She was poor. Her family was poor. The kind of poor where an 8 year old in the famlily has to sell the linens she'd crocheted. The kind of poor where 8 brothers and sisters shared a half of loaf of bread for dinner. The kind of poor where as an adult, she couldn't look at a bowl of rice because that's all she ate when she was growing up. Still, somehow, she kept her head high, and her dreams alive.
She saved a few pennies from her earnings a week, and when the shopping truck came by one day, she broke down and bought it.
She bought a red satin ribbon for her hair.
She knew it was a rather extravagant item to be buying for herself, yet she could not resist. She handed the driver of the shopping truck the money, he in return handed her a beautiful box all wrapped up with tissue paper and tied with a string.
She skipped home that day, excited of her new purchase, yet worried all the same.
What was her family going to say when she came home with such an extravagant item, and there was little to no food in the house?
What would they think of her?
She snuck into the doorway of the kitchen, hoping nobody was home. She tiptoed through the hallway and into her room, which she shared with 4 other sisters. She took the box and stared at it for what seemed an eternity. She opened the box and looked at the red satin ribbon. Her eyes, glazed over with joy, were open wide and she stared and stared and stared at the ribbon.
She walked over to the mirror and put the ribbon in her hair, pulling all of it high onto her head. She made a bow, and she smiled at herself in the mirror.
She glared at herself in the mirror.
"Mary", she said to herself, "you're dreams will come true some day, your dreams will come true".
Just then, two of her sisters came running into the house. These two girls were notorious for being known as the tomboys in the neighborhood. No matter if in dress or pants, these girls came home muddy, and quite disgusting for girls of their era.
Mary quickly pulled the ribbon from her hair and shoved it back into the box, frantically searching the room for a hiding place.
Where could she hide such a thing from 4 other sisters? She'd have to hide it good alright. Just then she remembered seeing a loose floorboard under the rug. She quickly pulled it up and stashed the box with the red satin ribbon in it in her new secret hiding place.
(more later)
(this is a true family story)
[This message has been edited by sweet-pea (edited August 08, 2001).]
