Chapter 5
It seemed I had some natural talent for art. And My classmates loved my pencil drawings.
I started selling cartoon sketches and portraits for fifty cents or a dollar each.
When an artist came to give a lecture at our school, she noticed my drawings.
“Would you like to study art with me?” she asked with a kind smile..
“But I have cancer, and my parents don’t love me. I’m just trying to survive. Learning art is something I don’t even dare to dream about,” I said, looking at her gentle face.
The artist’s name was Olivia Stevens.
“Then I’ll take you abroad for treatment and education. Would you like that?” her eyes grew sympathetic, her voice exceptionally gentle.
I nodded, suddenly filled with hope. It felt like my body was filled with an entire spring season. I knelt down and bowed to her: “I’ll repay your kindness someday, I promise!”
She helped me up, held my hand, and smiled softly.
“Sweetie, I’ve spoken with your parents about taking you abroad to study,” Ms. Stevens said happily, wheeling her suitcase and stroking my cheek.
“I bought you several boxes of new clothes. When we arrive, you can try them on slowly. I’ll make you look like a little princess,” she said, hugging me.
I looked up
at her and asked: “Ms. Stevens, you’re so kind. Things will get better from now on, right?”
She nodded with a smile and ordered me some KFC, telling me to eat while waiting–she needed to handle some paperwork
*.
But I waited and waited, and she didn’t return.
Worried, I went to find her. But I saw Noah and Emma appeared at the airport. They were smiling and talking to Ms. Stevens while her face grew increasingly grim.
After a while, they spotted me too.
Ms. Stevens sighed and said: “I’m sorry, Riley. I have to leave alone.”
Bewildered, I asked her: “Ms. Stevens, did they say something to you?”
She gently pulled my hand away. “Riley, your family seems to love you very much. Why did you lie to me? Using cancer to trick me? I went to all the trouble of contacting the best specialists abroad.”
In that instant, I felt like I’d been struck by lightning.
Love me?
They thought they loved me?
I tried to stop Ms. Stevens, wanting to explain everything.
But she pushed me away and hurried to board her flight.
I looked at Noah and Emma’s smirking faces, feeling as though my soul had left my body.
Everything around me turned white, radiating a strange halo. This had to be a dream, right?
By the time Noah and Emma got me into a taxi, I was emerging from my daze.
3.7%
Chapter 5
Emma kept whispering something to Noah while glancing at me with a smile,
“Why are you doing this? Why are you determined to destroy me?” I questioned.
They were startled.
“What’s wrong with you, Riley? There’s never an honest word out of your mouth. Cancer this, cancer that–I hope you actually get cancer!” Noah exploded.
“Going abroad? Mom and Dad are getting older, and you want to run off that far instead of being with them? You think you’re going to be some great artist or something?” he shouted, pointing at my nose.
I pushed his hand away and got out of the car, slowly walking back to that tiny basement to wait for death.
I don’t know how long I walked before reaching that dark, damp, cramped place.
I curled up in the tattered blanket.
This was where I belonged–the home of a sewer rat.
Spring was coming. I had survived the coldest winter, only to leave as spring arrived.
“Riley is so selfish. We pay Uncle five hundred dollars a month to keep her, and she still embarrasses us like this, running off to have someone else take care of her!” Noah’s voice suddenly appeared at the basement door, then gradually faded.
I laughed bitterly. So they had been paying my uncle.
Yet Uncle would coldly tell me every day: “We’re old. We can’t afford to raise an extra child.” Then constantly hint that the basement was habitable.
That’s why I eventually moved there.
Suddenly, a rat darted out of the basement making Emma shrieked.
Noah’s interest was piqued.
“Let’s catch it and scare Riley with it!” he suggested excitedly.
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