Story 1: LoveLana

2010.06.12 - Sun Foster Care

The news that mother told her this morning really lit her up. She has been smiling and dancing cheerfully all her way up to school on the hills. She knows that everyone thought she was acting weird, but never mind, they don't know my reasons. At least that was what she  constantly told herself. She remembered Kel ask her during Maths class if she's alright and if she needs any help. Kel is her friend, a black girl with round face and curly hair from Philadelphia who just lost her parents. Kel told her that they involved in a car accident, but the rumours spread that her parents died from a murder. She just smiled back at Kel, leaned to her closely and whispered in a soft voice so that the teacher and the rest of the class won't hear.

"Mother told me someone will pick me up this weekend. I will move to a bigger house and have a new mother and father! Isn't it exciting? I have been imagining wonderful things since this morning." She smiled, showing all her teeth. Beautiful white teeth. Mother often told the other children to brush their teeth at night before bedtime so all of them will have beautiful teeth. Just like hers.
"But Lana, that means I will be alone in here." Kel whispered back, and quickly pretends to look away when the teacher walks past their table.

At 10.30 a.m, the bell rings. It was a lunch time. Lana usually speed up to the cafe to buy her favourite yogurt that the cafe sell. But today she walks slowly side by side with
Kel. She has a lot to tell Kel about her new parents, and she knows Kel wouldn't like to hear that. But who else can she possibly tell, when Kel is the only person close to her, after mother. But mother is not in school. Kel is. So she decided that she want to tell Kel about her excitement.
"Kel, do you think they have doggies? I am scared of them. But I think I don't mind with puppies. Puppy is cute, after you." Lana could tell Kel is trying hard to hide her smile. Kel is always like that. She likes it when someone compliment her, either they really mean it or not.

Lana remembered seeing Kel crying when both of her new parents came to take her. Lana remembered the nervousness she felt to move to a new place, to be far away from her mother and the children she know for all of her life. And Lana clearly remembered the first time she arrived at the "house". There were no doggies and no puppies. Just a ship-wrecked house, with lots of cigarette butts and green bottles with 'Heineken' label all over the floor. The house smells terrible, and it holds a terrible fate for her.

Her new mother does not know how to cook. Plus, there were nothing to cook in the fridge. Lana herself don't know how to cook, but she know how to make sandwich. She used to help mother at the kitchen, preparing breakfast for other kids. When she went to ask her dad for food, he gave her a shove on her head. He said if she wants to eat, she need to work. But she does not know how to work. She is just a twelve years old girl. Nobody would want her to work for them. She confused and bewildered. She just sat silently in her room and drink water from tap. Sometimes, when she missed mother and Kel, she cried until she felt asleep. But often, she will wake up in the middle of the night to see if there is anything to eat from fridge. She ate expired bread, imagining it is some kind of tasty meal, more tastier from what mother used to cook. And she will smile while eating the bread, and at the same time tears would fall to her laps.

2015. 12. 24 - Lana's room

It has been five years since she left Kel and mother. She is seventeen years old now. She's grown into a young and pretty girl. In fact, she is the prettiest and youngest of all other girls in her business. Nothing changed about her, except for she is no longer eat expired food and cried to sleep like a baby. She's matured enough to think how to change her life. Sometimes life does not go the way you want. She admit that. Father and mother forced her to start working a week after she stepped into the house. And she had to do it. They sent her to work for nightclubs and sometimes to rich people parties. She earned a lot of money from these jobs.

On the first job that she went, she cried and tried to escape the nightclub when one of the guys suddenly slapped her hard on her face. He said she need to do her job or else she won't get the money. And she does not want that to happen. Mother will hit her again if she didn't bring any money back. When she finished her job she gave the money to mother, with hope that she will buy something for her. A food or new clothes perhaps. But it remains as a hope. Mother only received, not giving back. But now she knows how to survive. She would kept one third of the amount she got hidden under her socks when her father forcefully take it from her. She used the money to buy hamburger, fresh bread, sometimes Chinese food that she loves so much.

It was Saturday night when the thing happened. One of the drunken old men tried to touch her when she tried to entertain them with her dance. She does not like that, so she tried to move to a different spot when the drunk man suddenly climb on the stage and grab her waist. She react instinctively by pushing him away. Of course the old man get mad. He grab her hair and push her to floor. Lana could feel her lips bleed. She tried to get up and walk away. But the other old men were all around her. Everything happened so fast she almost remember nothing. The next thing she can remember is one of the old men laying on the floor, lifeless. Scared and confused, she fled from the scene, fled from everything that chained her life.

2016. 01. 01 - London National Library

Love sipped down the coffee. 'Almost done,' she smiled. There are several computers around her. She could hear one of the Japanese, or probably Chinese mother scolds her son for being so actively running here and there that he stumbled and injured his chin. "Kids."She muttered while her eyes are fixed on the computer screen.
"Hey Love, done?" Kel walked towards her, carrying a large box of pizza."Give me 3 minutes, I will head out soon, alright?" she replied. Kel make an 'okay' sign with her fingers and heads towards the cafe. Love brings the mouse pointer over the profile page and typed: LoveLana, her full name and press 'PUBLISH'. "Time for Pizza!" She stretched her arms and head out to the cafe. 











***Disclaimer: This story has no possible relations to the names or places mentioned. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.