Longing

3 sat by the window reading a book.

She looked down at the other children playing in the field.

She wished she could join them but after what happened 3 years ago and the new caretaker was brought in , no one would even talk to her .

3 was 14 years old. She stayed in an orphanage on the outskirts of city A.

She didn't know anything about her parents. The old caretaker said she didn't know either and if the old caretaker didn't know anything, how would the new one know.

Upstairs, she went to the balcony and looked ahead the orphanage high fences and gates . She saw a path and on both sides were trees. She wondered what was ahead of the path . Lots of people would come to the orphanage to adopt a child and she hadn't been adopted before .

She was here as children were adopted and new ones brought in. No child had stayed here longer than she had . She really wanted to leave . She wanted to have a home with parents and have friends and go to school too.

"Lunch time"

She heard the caretaker announce to the children that were playing . Everyone ran inside and she dropped the book in her hand and went down . She sat at the long dining table on the chair she always sat on . She felt bored .

This happened everyday ! It was starting to get frustrating . She sat on her chair and ate quietly . Everyone would be chatting together but she just couldn't say anything. Why was she so quiet ?

"Eat " the caretaker said as she scooped a spoon of congee into her bowl . They had congee yesterday and the day before yesterday . Why couldn't they have something else ? She had seen different types of food in a magazine there were sweet and sour pork ribs , steamed buns stuffed with soup , dumplings stuffedwith red bean sauce , spring rolls dumplings filled with pork or crab .

How she so wanted to taste all these. She had also read that congee was supposed to be thick and not watery like the one the cook made.

After lunch, she went to the shelf where the caretaker kept all the books that were donated to the orphanage. She looked and looked but couldn't find any grade 8 textbooks . There was no grade 8 math textbooks or English or chemistry or Chinese or politics. Now she really had to get adopted.

She couldn't stop studying . If she ever wanted to leave this orphanage she had to continue studying. What if one day they came back for her? She didn't want to be stupid by then