A Little Girl''s Tears (Short story)

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A girl named Angela, her mum, dad and her older sister Annie who where 15, lived in a little house in Derry, Ireland. It was year 1940 and Angela was 11 years old. She was a rather tall and skinny girl, with long brown hair and big blue eyes. Blue eyes weren’t that common where she lived. Every time she stepped outside the door people looked at her. They looked at her big blue eyes, her skinny body and then on her dirty clothes.
It was in the middle of the world war and her dad had just been called to join the army. But Angela didn’t know why he had to fight and what the war really was about. Many of the family’s friends had already been drafted, and some of them had died. Angela was furious about the war. She wanted it to stop and she wanted to help. None of her friends were very rich. Many of them hadn’t enough money to even live in a house, but Angela was among the lucky ones. Her father had a good job for the government and had enough money to keep their house.
Her sister Annie was also a skinny girl with short blond hair. She had dirty clothes and big blue eyes as her sister. Angela and Annie have always matched well together. They were like best friends, doing everything together. Every time one of them had to go into town the other one followed.

The day had now come when Angela’s father had to leave them. He was on his way packing his bags, when Angela came into the sunlit room. She was holding something that looked like a photograph of her and Annie. She gave it to him and said:
- Be careful and never forget us.
Her father smiled and said gently:
- Of course I will never forget you and Annie or your mother.
They hugged each other and Angela started to cry. When they stood there hugging each other Angela looked around in the room. It was nearly empty. There was only a filthy bed and a chair that no one had touched for several years. When they finally let go of each other her father hurried out of the room.
The rest of the family followed him to the train station to say good-bye. The road there was long and bumpy. It was cold outside because it was the beginning of January. When they arrived, there were already many other soldiers there.
Angela’s father kissed them all good-bye and went off and reported himself to the draft officer. He stepped on the train and leaned out of the window. He waved and everyone waved back to him.
When they came home Angela felt emptiness in her heart. The days just went on and on. She was waiting on a letter from her father, which he had promised to send her when he got the time. Finally one day the postman came with a letter for her, and luckily it was from her father. The letter said:

Dear Angela!
I miss you so much. Here everything is grey and the bombs are falling from the sky like rain. Your uncle is here too, we are sharing the same tent. I showed him the photograph of you and Annie and he thinks you have grown and become a very beautiful woman with your big eyes. Everyone is worried about their families and how the war is affecting them. I can’t say that anyone is in a good mood these days. I will be transferred to a new camp on Monday. I must go now. We don’t have so much time on our own. Take good care of your mum and sister and say hello to them for me. Take care of yourself and be careful, don’t be out late at night.
God is watching over you!
Hugs and Kisses
Your Dad
Ps. don’t forget to smile! I love you!

Angela started to cry when she read the letter. She was thinking that maybe he wouldn’t come back. Maybe she would never see her father again.
Angela woke up when her mother screamed at her to come out into the kitchen. She hurried out and asked her mother what she wanted. Her mother said that they would go and join the demonstration for civil rights.
They came to a square that was crowded with people. It was mostly women and children. Angela and Annie’s mum had made placards, which said:
“Stop the war” and “Let women work”.
They were out there demonstrating for many, many hours but they didn’t get any result. By the nightfall they could hear and see airplanes coming in the light of the sunset. The airplanes moved closer and closer. When they were just above them, they saw parachutes coming down from the sky like dark spots. German soldiers landed a little bit from the crowd.
After a while they took their guns and the crowd started screaming, panicking and running all over the place. Angela got separated from her mum and sister. She couldn’t find them. The German soldiers started shooting right into the crowd and many people were hit. Angela threw herself on the ground along with some other women and children.
One hour later all soldiers had left. All the people, who had been attacked, were still in panic. Angela lay on the ground and couldn’t move. She was scared and shaking, wondering where her mother was, and her sister Annie. Where was she? Who had been shot? Was anyone dead or just injured?

Finally she rose. She was still shaking and she nearly couldn’t stand up. She went looking among other scared people after her mum and Annie. After half an hour she found them. Laying on the ground holding onto each other. They had their faces down at the ground. She turned them and saw to her fear that they didn’t breathe and their hearts didn’t beat. They had blood all over themselves. Angela didn’t know what to do. She was all alone. Her mum and sister where dead. Her father was in the war on the other side of the world. Shaking and crying she walked along the streets home to their house. Two hours later she were home exhausted, and all she wanted to do was to get some sleep.
The next day she read in the paper that they had identified all bodies that had died. There were 13 people who had died, and among them half of Angela’s family. She couldn’t do anything. She wanted to write to her father and tell him what has happened but he was in the war. She didn’t have any relatives left. Darkness came to her. There was a man knocking at the door. When she opened he said his name was Sean and he was from the social authorities. He also said that he was going to take her with him because she didn’t had any relatives and her father was dead. She couldn’t believe her ears. She said that she had her father in the war. He said that he was going to take her with him whatever she wanted it or not. She ran away, towards the bus station. Sean ran after her but she was faster. Angela took the bus to the train station where she, her mom and Annie had said good-bye to her father.
She asked the draft officer if he knew where her dad was. He said that he had no idea.
Angela was exhausted and confused. She ran onboard the train and hid behind some boxes. She stared out of the open door and saw Sean talking to the draft officer.
Suddenly they started looking in the carriages. After a while Sean came to the carriage where Angela was hiding and it didn’t take long before he found her. He took her to the orphanage where she had to spend her time until someone would adopt her.

Weeks and weeks went by and no one was adopted. During the weeks Angela had time to read her fathers letter over and over again. One day it came an officer and his wife to the orphanage. They looked around at all the other girls, and when they came to Angela the lady asked what her name was. She answered that it was Angela. The lady thought that it was a beautiful name, and an hour later Angela was out from the orphanage.

Angela came home to the officer and his wife, and by the size of the house she thought that they must be very rich. The lady showed her along the stairs to the bathroom. Inside the bathroom there was a big bathtub and a mirror with gold on the sides. The walls were painted in light blue.
The lady said that Angela could take a bath because it didn’t look like she has had one for several weeks. The lady also said that she had bought some new clothes for her and pointed up through another stair into a room.

When Angela was done she went up the stair into the room. The room was so big that almost her house would fit inside. The room was painted in purple and had a huge bed in the middle. And on the bed was a white dress. Angela put it on and went downstairs. She went into the dining room, where the officer and his wife were. They said that it was time for dinner.
Angela thought that maybe she could feel happy here. It didn’t take her long to realize she was wrong. By dinnertime the officer said that he would tell her some rules. He said that she must call him sir. She must not make any noise and she must be in bed at 8 o’clock. She told him that she understood the rules and after the dinner she went up to b...