Lidia's Journel

"I'll get you when I get out of prison," he hissed, with an almost evil grin on his face.  Lidia shrieked as loud as a foghorn.  That's how Lidia Spark woke up almost every day for 3 months.  "The nightmare," she whispered, then fainted.

Lidia was sent here 3 months ago in August, 1754, St. Solicitous, Rhode Island, all covered in bruises and scratches.  She even had a black eye and whip marks on her back.  Lidia had a wonderful family back then: a beautiful mom, an intelligent dad with their only child, blond haired and startling bright, ocean blue eyes.  But that was then.  After her mother died nothing seemed right anymore.  Lidia literally lived off her closet after then, most of her personal belongings missing too.  Her dad beat her up everyday so he was arrested for child abuse, which was why she was in an orphanage and more importantly was why she was terrorized at the sight of an adult.

The first time cook came in with supper, cook started introducing herself to Lidia as the cook of St Solicitous orphanage.

Lidia let out a blood-curdling scream and masked herself from cook by diving in the closet and locked herself in.  It even took 3 hours for her best friend, Oliver, to coax her out of it.  By now everybody knew not to let Lidia catch sight of a grown-up of the punishment was an ear-splitting shriek.  There is one more thing I need to tell you.  Lidia has a journel she writes madly in.  She has recorded every single hour of her life ever since she could write.

That afternoon she wrote about pea-soup with bolonga, nothing exciting, but she wrote it down nevertheless.  She (left) her journel on her desk.

The next thing she knew Oliver was shaking her and loud bell was ringing.  Then Oliver choked.  "Liddy!  There's a fire in the house!  Let's get out of here!"

"Be right there," Lidia mumbled, still drowsy.  Then Oliver's words sank in and she stumbled out of bet, swiped a pen and her journel and got out of there.

The day after the fire, Lidia's entry read "November, 1754 I am worried about my dad.  Now that I have nowhere to go, my dad is sure to hunt me down, as his sentence to jail ends in."

That's all what was there.  The rest was too wet to read.  That day at midday, Oliver mysteriously vanished.  Day by day, Lidia got better at not screaming at the sight of an adult, but occasionally one would slip out.

One day she had enough courage, and pennies, to go to the train station where she had to buy a ticket to some place where her dad wouldn't find her so easily.  When she got there, she slipped and fell over the edge, when soneone, something caught her.  Was Oliver back to save her?  She looked back, screamed, and tried to writhe free of the iron-hard grip on her wrist when the woman said "Hi, my name's Marge nice to know your acquaintance!"

"Um, hi?" croaked Lidia.

"What 'chya doin' out here?  I've seen you out on the streets writing in that journel of yours."  Marge shouted. Lidia blushed "Thank you miss," Lidia said politely.  "No miss," Margie said.  "Why are you out by yourself."  Lidia told her the story.  When  it was over she said, "Hon, I am gonna take you to the adoption center right now."  Lidia was stunned.

"You mean," Lidia stammered.

"Yes, that's what I mean," Margie said to her.

Five months later

Lidia lived a happy life and so did Margie.

A Christmas Tradition

"Deck the halls with boughs of holly," the radio sings.

"Vroom, Vroom!"  Ethan growls, playing with his toy car.  That's the average Christmas morning in the Lai household.

"It's time to eat kids,"  Mom sings from the kitchen.  "What do you want?"

"You know!"  we chorused.  For Christmas, we always have hashbrowns and eggs.  We stay in our pj's all day until dinner time where we dress up and and listen to Christmas music over savory prime ribs and for dessert we have wonderful ... (recipie)