Chapter Two: Food for Cheap
Kelsi found herself on a bridge, golden in color, from the planks that provided a way for people to tread across to the nails and bolts that partly held it together. The bridge was to magnificent to simply be crafted by human hands, something else was holding gleaming bridge together as well. The sky was velvety black, silver stars twinkling thousands of light-years away. Two green, blue, brown and white globes, one in front and one in back of her, loomed in the sky, looking an awful lot like the satellite pictures of Nesserum. Kelsi felt a cold seep through her, a coldness like she had never felt before. Her gaze fell back to the breath-taking bridge. It was so long, longer than any bridge she had seen before and at the end she thought she saw someone; someone beckoning her. Kelsi put some of her weight on the suburb planks and began to walk slowly. She abruptly stepped backwards, as if the bridge was boiling hot magma. For some reason she was scared like something she didn’t want to meet was waiting for her. But what about that person? She could picture their face, longing to see her after all these years. She knew it sounded funny, but she could feel how much they missed her. Kelsi made up her mind, she would go . . .
“Brrringgg!” The wake-up call sounded, startling Kelsi who had been asleep in her bed. She had that dream again, the bridge dream. The bridge dream was nothing new; Kelsi had been having the dream since she was a baby. It was almost comforting, like a child’s security blanket brought peace and assurance.
“Brrrrriinnnngggg!” The bell sounded, slightly louder this time.
Kelsi groaned and rolled out of bed. She quickly dressed in a faded tee-shirt and a pair of jeans that had a hole in the knee. Both were donated clothing from a local clothes drive. She pulled out a pair of socks that had been dyed pink in the wash and double knotted the frayed shoelaces of her scuffed tennis shoes.
After gathering her school books and homework she put them in a worn black back-pack that was donated as well. Kelsi finally got into the bathroom and hurriedly brushed her teeth. She glanced at her hair and decided to do it on the way to school. Grabbing a piece of toast with barely any apricot jam, Kelsi slung her back-pack over her shoulders and began to book it to school. Luckily the local high school wasn’t very far from the orphanage.
“Got exercise?” Kelsi saw the beat-up yellow school bus zoom by, leaving her to cough from the fumes and shake off the hurt from the insults that the kids hurled at her. Kelsi had gotten banned from the bus (the bus driver had realized that whenever Kelsi stepped on the bus it automatically broke down.) Having to walk to school was beginning to take it’s toll on Kelsi. She didn’t know how much longer she could stand the laughing kids as they pushed down the windows and called her names that she couldn’t block out, no matter how hard she tried.
As Kelsi neared Dilworth High she quickly pulled her stubbornly tangled hair back into a messy ponytail. She sighed. Another long day of torture was ahead.
“Kelsi, can you please turn you picture in?” Mrs. Eisenberg rudely awoke Kelsi from her daydreams. Kelsi had finally made it to Art, 4th period.
“Um . . . let me see if I can find it,” Kelsi rummaged around in her back-pack (whose strap had broken during 2nd period Biology) until she found a beaten-up blue folder. “Here it is,” she pulled out a picture of the golden bridge from her dreams. A blue, green, brown and white globe lay at the end of the bridge, a silhouette of someone in front of the large globe. Golden glitter dusted the bridge’s planks and support beams and Kelsi’s name was neatly lettered in the corner.
“This is . . . beautiful,” Mrs. Eisenberg sighed, uncharacteristically quiet. “This is breath-taking! I especially enjoy the stars twinkling in the background. Excellent!” Mrs. Eisenberg found her voice as she tacked Kelsi’s picture up on the cork board and stepped back to admire the drawing. “Now class, see the fabulous use of glitter in this,” Mrs. Eisenberg began but was interrupted by the bell.
“Saved by the bell!” Kelsi muttered under her breath. “Thank goodness it’s lunchtime!”
Everyone scrambled to get out of the stuffy classroom. Kelsi gathered her art supplied and began to walk towards the cafeteria.
Kelsi stood in back of the very long (and very crowded) lunch line and waited for her turn.
“Do ya want butta on ya carrats?” The lunch lady asked, motioning a butter-filled ladle towards a pile of orange mush.
“Sure,” Kelsi nodded her thanks and handed her dollar-fifty to the lunch lady at the cash register.
“Enjoy your sloppy joe,” the lunch lady said as Kelsi walked off.
Kelsi set her plastic tray onto a deserted table in a forgotten corner. She pulled the plastic spork out of the napkin and started eating the carrots and sloppy joe. Putting her straw into the milk carton she gulped the cafeteria food down.
At least it’s better than orphanage food. She thought to herself as she wrapped the dry crumbly peanut butter cookie that resembled a hockey puck in her napkin. Kelsi put the wrapped cookie in her pocket.
“Afraid someone’s gonna steal your cookie?”
Kelsi groaned as she looked up. Why did that football jock Curtis have to come and bother her? Couldn’t he leave her alone for once? Kelsi pretended that she couldn’t hear him as she pulled out a library book.
“Hey, Little Orphan Annie, I’m talkin’ to you!” Curtis knocked the library book out of Kelsi’s hands.
“Go away Curtis! Don’t you have anything better to do?” Kelsi tried to say bravely but ended up whispering.
“What could be more fun than talkin’ to you?” Curtis leered.
“Isn’t there an English test coming up? If I were you, I’d be studying. Of course if I were you I would have started studying three months ago so I could actually pass!” Kelsi clamped her hands over her mouth in horror. Had she actually said that?
Curtis stood there, his face blank until the insult clicked. “Why you little,” he lunged at Kelsi when the bell rang.
Kelsi grabbed her lunch tray and back pack, dodging a furious Curtis.
“That’s twice in one day!” Kelsi marveled at her excellent timing as she dumped her tray into the giant black garbage can.
Ms. Troa glared at Curtis as he began to follow Kelsi. “Get to class!” Kelsi could here her screechy voice all the way from the computer lab.
“Here’s your assignment, Kelsi,” Mr. Powell handed Kelsi a stack of papers and a clipboard. “Maybe you should stay out of the lab. Most of the computer you’ve . . . dealt with need some more rebooting.”
Kelsi understood. The school couldn’t afford for her to crash any more computers.
“Okay, I’ll just be outside the door,” Kelsi set her backpack down, got a pencil out and sad down on the worn carpeted floor, pretzel style.
“Oh, did you get in trouble?” A tween girl from the Jr. High asked as she walked by. Kelsi recognized her as the only child of the Drama teacher, Mrs. Larchmont.
“No,” Kelsi scowled at the girl.
“Then why aren’t you in the classroom?” Sniffed the girl. “Never mind, I rather not waste my time, especially on the likes of you. I need to see my mother about something too important for you orphan ears to hear,” and with a throw of her sparkly silver scarf the girl primly walked away.
Kelsi’s face flushed. Even a kid that was in seventh grade was mean to her! She felt like crying. Couldn’t at least someone be nice to her? Brushing the depressing thoughts out of her mind she focused on the packet of papers before her.
After jotting down her answer to a particularly hard question about how to make a hyperlink, Kelsi neatly folded the packet back and gave the partially done assignment to Mr. Powell.
“You can finish the packet on Monday,” Mr. Powell said to Kelsi. “Have a nice weekend.”
Kelsi almost laughed. Have a nice weekend, wasn’t that an oxymoron? Sure, it was nice to not have any school but between schoolwork, her overtime hours at her after-school job and chores at the orphanage, Kelsi didn’t have any time for “nice” weekends.
Kelsi entered the English classroom. 6th hour History hadn’t been too bad today, it was mostly notes on the Battle of Kerew in 1795. There was going to be a quiz on Monday so Mr. Cemalt hadn’t assigned any homework in hopes that the students would study instead.
“Welcome class,” Miss Apeed said in her gentle, yet firm voice. “Today we’re going to the library to work on an informative essay.” Some of the students groaned. “I do believe that one os also due for Mr. Cemalt’s class so he and I have agreed that you may turn in the same paper for both assignments.” She passed out a rubric. “The report will be on something that has to do with the history of Nesserum.”
Most of the students looked like they could care less but Kelsi was happy. Two assignments for the work of one? It couldn’t get much better than that, at least where school work was involved. The class shuffled down the hall towards Kelsi’s favorite place in the old high school, the library.
As Kelsi stepped into the book-filled room a comforting aroma welcomed her. The smell was th best smell Kelsi could think of, the spicy odor of old books and the clean smell of new books. Kelsi automatically went towards the non-fiction books and looked through the dusty volumes. She was trying to decide what her informative essay should be on when a particularly ancient, worn book caught her eye. The book looked like it hadn’t been opened in fifty years so Kelsi hefted the heavy volume onto a near-by table.
As she opened the leather-bound book a huge puff of dust came up, making Kelsi cough and sneeze. She turned the yellowing pages to the title page and read what it said aloud.
“A History of the Sister Planets,” Kelsi breathed softly. “Sister Planets? There aren’t any other planets 30 zillion light years away, let alone Sister Planets. Somebody must have mis-shelved this,” but something compelled Kelsi to read on. She hadn’t skimmed more than a page and a half when Miss Apeed’s voice penetrated her thoughts.
“Okay everyone, please leave your books here or check them out. The bell is going to ring in ten minutes and I want to get back to class before then.” Kelsi frowned at the giant book. It was clearly fascinating and she really wanted to read it, even if it looked like it should be in the Sci-Fi section. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to lug the heavy book back to the orphanage. Would it even fit in her backpack? Kelsi finally decided she’d take it with her, maybe she’d get lucky and be able to salvage some grain of truth for the report.
She heaved the book onto the librarians desk.
“Can I check this out?” Kelsi questioned.
Ms. Cag frowned at Kelsi, her eyes slits behind her wire-rimmed bifocals. “That book is an antique! I only check out books that old to people with the cleanest records, let me check the computer.” She looked at the screen then looked back at Kelsi. “Only the most trustworthy students are allowed to even look at those books and considering your previous record you aren’t allowed to check out that book.” Her grating voice was as steely as her gray colored hair.
Kelsi sighed. So she accidently tore a page of a picture book out when she was eight and had an over-due book when she was ten! That was years ago! “Alright,” Kelsi looked longingly at the book as she collected her bag and went back to the English classroom.
Kelsi entered the classroom just as the bell rang then did an about face and walked out the door towards the local grocery store (Food for Cheap) where she worked. The only thing more annoying than the store’s ridiculous mascot, Charlie the Chick (“Cheep, cheep, cheap food at Food for Cheap!”) Was the fact that Kelsi had to do all the rotten jobs like mopping the floor, washing the windows, and re-stocking food instead of doing the easy jobs like ringing up food. (Yet another problem because of her technology “curse.”)
“Hey Lorna!” Kelsi considerably brightened as she saw her best friend walk in and put on her “Food for Cheap” apron on.
“Hey! Do you think I’d get in trouble if I put an arrow through Charlie’s head and cross out his eyes to make him dead?” Lorna smiled, pointing at the cartoon Charlie on her apron.
“Wouldn’t risk it, can you risk losing your job and college fund?” Kelsi asked, already knowing that Lorna would say no. Her greatest ambition in life was to go to college and become a science major.
Lorna shook her head. “To bad though, it would have been so refreshing!” She put her sunshine colored hair up with a bright yellow scrunchie.
“Girls!” Mr Merah, the assistant manager scolded. “You know your jobs! Get to work!”
“Yes sir!” Kelsi said as she and Lorna gathered together an eclectic assortment of mops, brooms, rags and cleaning solutions.
Kelsi and Lorna usually worked side by side down each aisle, talking the whole time. Today was no different.
“Do you remember your real parents?” Kelsi asked Lorna. Like Kelsi, Lorna was an orphan but had come to the orphanage when she was five. Lorna had been adopted by a couple with a large family (seven kids) that wanted an even eight but were unable to have more. She and Kelsi had become inseparable when Lorna was at the orphanage for a few months and had been best friends ever since.
“A little. I remember my mother telling me that she was sending me on a mission to save someone,” Lorna laughed, sounding like a chorus of tiny bells.
“What did she look like?” Kelsi scrubbed a particularly stained linoleum tile.
“I mostly remember what she was like, she was kind, her voice was soft. I do remember that she had long hair though. It was dark brown and hung around her face in soft waves.”
“Clean-up on aisle twelve,” Olivia’s voice came over the intercom. Kelsi sighed as she took a mop and bucket to aisle twelve. Mud was all over the floor as well as a dozen eggs. Three boys gasped as she came near and ran away, a football in hand.
“Sorry!” Kelsi heard one of the little boys yell as she quickly mopped up the mess and hurried back to Lorna.
“There’s something better than this, right?” Kelsi questioned, fearing the answer.
“Why do you think I’m going to college?” Lorna smiled then took Kelsi by the shoulders, her face completely serious. “Life stinks right now, but it’ll get better.”
“It just feels like I’ll never have a home, that I’ll be stuck here with no one that loves me,” Kelsi’s voice began to waver but she quickly got a hold of it.
“You’ll go home, I know it,” Lorna soothingly said.
But where is home? Kelsi wondered but decided she should fix the boxes on the cereal display then voice her concerns.
The two quietly worked together for the next three hours, sometimes talking about a new read or something someone said. “Home” was a subject that didn’t come up again but was still fresh in their minds. It always was.
The shift ended and Kelsi began to walk home in the dying daylight. She’d come again tomorrow, the only day she didn’t work was Sunday. Her paycheck came tomorrow and the pennies she earned at Food for Cheap would be hidden in a dictionary under her bed. The money would sit there safe and sound until Kelsi needed to buy something with it, but for what? College was always a possibility but was it a worthwhile one? Kelsi valued education but she was by no means top of her class. The money she earned from Food for Cheap might cover books and tuition at a community college but what about housing? Scholarships were as out of her reach as a happy family and even college courses over the Internet were out because of “the curse.”
Stop wallowing in self-pity! Kelsi scolded herself as she climbed the stone-hewn stairs to the orphanage.
Laughter of yong girls playing tag was heard and Kelsi instantly brightened. They sounded so happy and carefree.
“Kelsi, can you help me?” Tara came up to Kelsi and tugged on her shirt.
“Sure,” Kelsi dropped her bag onto the ground and sat on a fallen log. “What’s the problem?”
“Long division,” Tara made a face. “I don’t get it.”
“Okay,’ Kelsi explained it several different times, patiently correcting and praising whenever it was needed. After watching Tara go through half her 30 math problems step-by-step, Kelsi got up to leave. “If you need any more help, just find me.”
“Okay, thanks!” Kelsi heard Tara yell as she pushed the giant oak door open.
St Bradwock’s had been around for (what seemed like) hundreds of years. Kelsi was surprised that it hadn’t already crumbled into a pile of stones and dust. It had been around for so long because it was very sturdily built, most of it was made of granite rocks. Sometimes Kelsi felt a weird vibe come from the building, like something devastating had happened in the stone building, ages and ages before it had become a orphanage. Not something creepy, like a gruesome murder, but something terribly sad and life, no, world shattering. She knew it sounded insane, how could she know what happened years ago, but she knew she was right. When she got feelings like this there was no way she was wrong.
The old orphanage was almost like a maze, its labyrinth-like hallways often stranded yong girls trying to find their way back to their bedrooms after dinner. The girls would usually cry, waiting for an older girl to find them then guide them back to their room. Luckily, Kelsi knew the hallways as well as she knew the back of her own hand. Fourteen years at St. Bradwock’s had definitely been helpful in that category, she had even found a couple of secret hiding spots, some of them know of by others, some (she was pretty sure) long forgotten.
The winding staircase to the sleeping quarters creaked loudly. Quickly looking behind her, Kelsi felt her heart skip a beat. Even though she knew she wasn’t doing anything wrong, Kelsi always felt like she needed to be on her guard. At the orphanage it felt like the walls had eyes and ears. If anyone did anything it spread through the orphanage like wildfire. Though some girls, like Olivia, liked to be the center of attention, Kelsi liked to keep a low profile.
She finally reached the smaller dormitory where the girls fourteen and up slept. The dormitory for the high school girls were more private than the rooms for the younger girls. Floral quilts divided the rooms during the summer. When the blankets were needed during the winter thin, holey sheets were often used instead. Blankets were very scarce during the winter because the heating system frequently went on the fritz.
Kelsi’s bed was in a more “private” corner of the room. Her bed was furthest away from the door and was near a small square window. Many girls shied away from windows as a horse would from a snake since the windows would let in cold air during the winter. This seemed to be a small price to pay, at least to Kelsi. Beautiful trees from the forest were easily spotted from the window that brought in the needed sunshine for Kelsi’s survival. Shivers went up her spine as she remembered living downstairs without a window. Dark, dreary days surrounded her then and though life was hard now, the window seemed to make orphanage life more bearable.
There was less high school orphans than anything else. Even though there were many babies and toddlers they quickly were adopted before they were old enough to become high school orphans. The few high school students quickly left at their first opportunity, many leaving at age sixteen to work someplace else. The only high schoolers now were Kelsi and five other girls, including Olivia. Kelsi sometimes pondered on why Olivia was still at the orphanage. It was common knowledge that Olivia had been offered more than one home.
“Have a home now?” Olivia would often laugh, her voice filled with disgust. “Parents are more strict than Matron. I may’ve w anted parents when I was little but I certainly don’t want them now, not with all their crazy rules and kooky punishments. No thanks, count me out.” Olivia was often heard lecturing the other girls on the evils of parents.
“Easy enough for her to say,” Kelsi muttered to herself. “When one has millions of loyal friends and adoring subjects, who needs a loving family?” She flopped on her bed, wondering whether it was cold enough to take down the blankets ad put up the sheets.
The autumn cold seeped through the old window. Kelsi shivered. Winter was coming faster and faster, chilling everything in preparation for the freezing winter ahead. Tugging the three thick patchwork quilts down, Kelsi sighed as she thought of the weekend ahead of her. With the on coming cold the orphanage would be full of activity until every nook and cranny had been stuffed with newspaper and even the horrible large crop of turnips were bottled.
Hopefully I’ll be able to work in the garden this weekend. At least it’s close to the forest. Kelsi longingly looked out the grimy window towards the forest. She felt drawn to it, probably because she was found there, but the forest grounds were forbidden to all girls from the orphanage and many of the children that lived in town. The fact that the forest was “forbidden” also made Kelsi’s fascination with it stronger. Tall, imposing pines that made up the majority of the forest helped with the tales that were told. The forest was where strange things happened, many of them dangerous.
Kelsi pulled out several sheets and pinned them up, helping re-create the “cubicle” that was supposedly her own. Curling up on her bed, nestled among the four blankets, Kelsi closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. The smell of pine needles wafted in though the semi-open window. She exhaled and for a second all her fears and worries drifted away. When she was asleep the world was no longer difficult. The world was no longer there.
