Written in Red

 

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A Memory

Adelaide wiped the sweat off her forehead and stared into the sky. A distant glow hinted at the sun's presence, but the air was so full of smog, it was impossible to see. In the distance she could hear the creaks and groans of giant, metal machines digging away at foundations, building glowing skyscrapers.

"The future of our empire!" social elites would declare.

"...built on the breaking bones of the poor," her father would respond.

Adelaide didn't care for politics. She didn't understand them, just that some people had money and nice houses. Then there was her family, living in the Western slums of London, struggling to get by. Most poor families had working children to help the family survive, but not Adelaide's. Her father refused to allow the children to work. Instead, he spent his days working at the docks, picking up extra work from the elites when he could. Adelaide's mother was a decent seamstress and picked up some extra coin mending the uniforms of the low class community.

"Addy!" Sibling 1 called. "Come play!"

Adelaide turned to see the youngest of the three standing in the doorway of their peeling, leaning shack. Her feet and yellow summer dress were covered in dirt, something not altogether unusual for her three little sisters.

"You know I can't quite yet, S1. I have to tend to our food, or how will you three little piggies eat?" Adelaide teased.

"We're not piggies!" S1 stomped defiantly.

"Of course not," Adelaide smiled. "You're all princesses. Royalty of West London. Now go back to S2 and S3 and play. I'll be in as soon as I can."

Adelaide turned and continued to tend to their small supply of vegetables, trimming dead bits and pulling weeds as she went along. Thinking of dinner in just a few hours, she selected two large potatoes and a small onion for stew. She stood, dusted off her light blue dress, and walked inside.

"Addy! Addy!" S2 cried as she ran into the room, S1 just behind her. "S1 says we're princesses!"

"Well of course you are!" Adelaide set down the vegetables she collected and gathered the weeds she had just plucked from outside. "Do you know what every princess needs?"

"A huge castle!" S1 shouted.

"No! A handsome prince!" said S2.

Adelaide began weaving the ends of the weeds together, leaving the small budding flowers poking up at the top. "How about a beautiful crown?" She asked, placing one of the flower circlets atop S1's strawberry blond curls.

S2 gasped. "It's so pretty! Can I have one?"

"Of course!" Adelaide replied. "Every princess must have a crown." She placed the second circlet around S2's ash colored bun, now tangled and falling out from their rough play.

"Thank you, Addy." both sisters chimed in unison.

"No, thank you princesses," Adelaide said, curtseying before them. "Where's your sister? Where's S3?"

S1 looked to the ground. "She said she won't play princesses with us. She said it's a lie."

"A lie? Well, that's the silliest thing I've heard. I'm going to find her. You two stick to your princess duties, okay? I'll be right back," Adelaide said.

"But, what are princess duties?" S1 asked.

"Well, everyone knows that royalty makes up the laws of the land. So why don't you two make up the rules for the house?" Adelaide suggested. "Make sure they're good ones, though, or you might have a rebellion on your hands!"

Adelaide walked out of their small kitchen, through the den, and into the bedroom she shared with her three sisters. "S3? S3 where are you?" She paused and glanced around, lifting blankets and pillows littering the floor. "S3?"

Muffled sniffling escaped the broken closet doors. Adelaide approached the closet carefully. "S3? Are you in here?" She opened one door, revealing S3 huddled in the corner, clutching her knees to her chest and crying. "S3, what's wrong? Why won't you play with your sisters?"Adelaide asked, kneeling while leaning over to brush a strand of auburn hair out of her sister's eyes.

"Because it's a lie!" S3 shrieked, wincing away from Adelaide's hand. "It's a lie! We're not princesses! We're poor!" Sobs began to roll out of S3's small frame, her shoulders shaking under her sage dress with each sob.

"Poor? Where did you hear this? Who told you this?" Adelaide asked, anger beginning to creep across her face.

"At school! I said when I grow up I want to live in a big, pretty house like the ones the big machines are building." S3 explained between sobs. "Randomboyname called me dense and said not me, not S2, not S3, and not you would ever be able to live in a big OR pretty house! He said we were poor and that's why Poppa is gone all day, because he works too much because we're poor!" S3 wailed this last word, her body convulsing. "He said we wouldn't be so poor if we all worked, but that we're all too spoiled! And so we don't get a big house and we don't get pretty things! We only get to live in dirt for our whole lives!"

"Hush, hush now. That randomboyname is the dense one. He doesn't know a pretty girl or house from a rock stuck in the mud!" Adelaid said, gently rubbing S3's shoulder. "We may not have as much money as the elites who live in big pretty houses, but a big, pretty house isn't everything. Big, pretty houses don't make people happy."

"They don't? Then why are the big machines tearing everything down to build them? Why do the fancy people get to live in them?" S3 asked, emerald green eyes looking up now from her knees.

"Because, S3, they are missing the important things in their lives. All they have is money." Adelaide replied. "We don't have money, and we don't have a big, pretty house. We don't get to make the rules, we don't get to go to fancy dances and dinners. But we have a big, beautiful family, and we get to spend time together every night. We get to play, and have fun, and share stories. But most of all, we get love. Those elites don't get love from people because all they love is money and things. I'm sure it's awful lonely."

S3 stared at Adelaide, doubting the truth of her words. "Is that why we don't work?"

"Yes," Adelaide said. "Poppa wants us to be kids and play and spend time together. And he's always home for dinner every night. Would you rather have a big, pretty house or would you rather sit at the table with me, S1, Moma, Poppa, and S2? Would you rather love lots and lots of money, or would you rather play with us?

S3 thought for a moment. She looked into Adelaide's piercing green eyes. They were the only two in the family to have them. "I would never want to leave you, Addy," she finally said. "Or S2, or S1, or Momma and Poppa. I can't think of what it would be like to be all alone."

"See? A big, pretty house doesn't seem so important, does it?" Asked Adelaide.

"No, it doesn't. Addy, how did you get so smart?" S3 looked up at Adelaide with awe.

"I'm not that smart silly, this is just what Poppa and Momma have taught me. I was once like you, you know," Adelaide smiled. "I used to wonder why I couldn't have nice dresses and go to parties and eat rabbit every night. I cried and cried because I couldn't be like the pretty girls I saw in Central London when I would go with Momma to work." She reached across and lifted S3's elbow, bringing her up from the ground. "Then Poppa set me down to tell me that money isn't everything. I don't need to wear fancy dresses to be happy, because I have all you little princesses with me."

S3's eyes grew wide. "Princesses? But we're poor."

"Yes, S3. We don't have money like princesses, but that doesn't mean we can't play pretend." Adelaide wrapped the last circlet she made around S3's head. "I like to think that princesses are kind, and sweet, and just. Do you think you need money to do that?"

"No..." S3 mumbled.

"Okay, then! Go be a princess with your sisters. They are making the laws of the house, and you better butt in or they may rule you right out!" Adelaide gave S3 a gentle shove out the door.

"But what about you, Addy? Aren't you  a princess too?" S3 asked.

"I could be, but someone has to feed all these little princesses before they get cranky and start a hanging!" Adelaide followed S3 into the den. Smiling as she watched S3 sit to play with her sisters, Adelaide continued into the kitchen and began to chop up the potatoes and onion she picked to stew. She filled their largest pot with water and tossed the veggies in, adding a dash of the spices her mother had received from one of the neighbors as a gift of thanks for saving her work uniform. The neighbor had received them from one of the elites she worked for. Adelaide heard the door open.

"Oh, Addy. You shouldn't be preparing dinner!" Her mother exclaimed.

Adelaide put the lid on the pot and turned to embrace her mother. "It's okay Momma, I know you've had a long day working. I wanted to do something nice for you." She gave her mother a tight squeeze and looked up at her face. Her auburn hair peppered with grey was pulled tightly into a bun. The lines on her face grew deeper with each long day spent traveling to others' houses, hours spent hunched over a project. Her hazel eyes once shined brightly in her youth. Adelaide remembered looking into her Momma's eyes as a very small child thinking they looked like jewels. With age, they had dulled. Nights spent worrying about her children, husband, and coin had taken a toll on the beauty that was once the talk of the slums.

"Addy, you're only nine. You should be playing with your sisters," her mother responded, stroking Adelaide's vivid red hair. "You know how your father feels about growing up too soon."

"Momma, every other boy and girl my age is at work," Adelaide said. "Some girls my age are already being courted."

Adelaide's mother pulled away. "Now there will be no talk of boys and courtship. I don't care what the rest of the town is doing. You're too young, I will not have my little girl growing up just yet." She smiled at Adelaide, worry visible in her eyes.

"I know, Momma. Don't worry, you can't get rid of me just yet," Adelaide said, giving her mother the best reassuring smile she could manage. Truth was, she was worried about coin and food. With four children, keeping everyone from starving was a hard task. Luckily enough people in the slums adored Adelaide's family to make a deal for seeds and spices every now and then.

Adelaide tended to the stew while her mother watched S1, S2, and S3 play in the den. She carefully poured six bowls with broth and a few pieces of potatoes each. She set the bowls on their kitchen table made of dusty, eaten away wood and grabbed six spoons. Just then, her father walked through the door.

"Poppa!" Adelaide cried, rushing over to him and throwing her arms around his neck. "I missed you. How was work? What did you to today? Did anything exciting happen?"

"Whoa, Addy! Calm down girl, I just walked through the door!" Her father laughed as he mussed her hair and walked over to their mother.

"Oh, Dad, she's just excited to see you," Adelaide's mother said, a small spark entering her eyes.

"I know, I know. And I'm excited to see all of you too," her father replied, leaning down to kiss Adelaide's mother. "I miss you when I'm working. I'll tell you all about my day while we eat supper. I'm starved!"

Adelaide, followed by S2, S1, and S3, followed her mother and father to the table.

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