Tears Amidst The War

• Olivia Cash, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2010

It was a cold winter’s night, 1944, and a pale faced lady could just be seen trudging through the cobblestone streets of London. In her thin arms she held a baby girl, Matilda, only a few weeks old. The baby gurgled happily in her sleep, and nestled in to her mother’s warm chest, unaware of the tragedy about to unfold. The lady timorously approached a tall black building with a sign by the front door saying: Mrs Hockley’s orphanage for Young Ladies”. A teardrop fell onto the ladies frozen cheek as she took one last look at her beloved baby daughter. “I will always love you, my darling, may this keep you safe forever.” the lady said desolately, placing a silver locket around the baby’s neck. It was engraved with a beautiful sun and moon, just like her own. She kissed the baby gently, laid her down on the front doorstep and, with huge grief, rounded the corner and disappeared into the night.
20 years later
Matilda Medlows was a 20 year old woman who had been abandoned as a baby on the dirty streets of London, by her then desolate mother. In the precarious suburbs of Whitechapel, no mother could ever expect their child to grow up in such a grim place with any happiness. The only fact about her mother that Matilda knew was that she owned a locket with exactly the same pattern as the one that hung limply around her own neck, Matilda’s most treasured possession. Her childhood had been spent at the lonely orphanage, and she longed to one day be reunited with her mother. With the Blitz now surging through London, just staying alive seemed hard enough.
Matilda awoke to the smell of cold, crisp air lingering about her window. Somewhere in the distance she could hear the faint sounds of ominous gunshots. Every Londoner had their moments of trepidation. This was Matilda’s turn. She dressed; finished her cold oats and picking up her best brown coat, Matilda stepped out of the small cottage and the dirty narrow street. As she walked past the derelict shopfronts, Matilda watched enviously as a smiling mother and daughter rode past on horseback, laughing together. With a broken heart, Matilda walked towards the new butcher’s shop and made her way inside. As she fished inside her purse for a spare shilling she heard a piercing shriek. Matilda looked up with a startle. The shopkeeper had fallen over the open till. Matilda suddenly recognised something that made her heart leap. Around the lady’s neck lay a silver locket, engraved with a beautiful sun and a moon. Matilda and her mother may have been lost for words, but the minute the two looked into each other’s emerald green eyes, Matilda knew that she could now be content, and live the rest of her life knowing that her mother would always be there for her when needed.