Victoria's New Life

• Emily Grogan, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2017

Victoria had lived in the orphanage on castle-street since the death of her parents when she was two years old. She loved the orphanage with all her heart and loved all the teachers and other orphans. She slept in a room with seven other orphans, with wooden beds and pink sheets changed every five days by miss Kelly the house keeper. Miss Jenny would make them bacon and eggs for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, a roast for tea, and scones for dessert.
Victoria loved to keep the orphanage clean and took pride in looking at her perfectly clean room. She even made the other girl's beds straight with no rumbles. She loved to make her mistresses proud at her hard work. She always dreamt about how it would be like to be adopted while she was making her pink bed.
On a Monday afternoon, her dream came true. She was called up by one of her roommate’s Emma who told her to go up to miss Henry the head mistress. She dropped her broom and ran as fast as she could up the spiraling stairs on trembling legs. She opened the large wooden doors and entered miss Henrys office. “Is that you Victoria?” said miss Henry. “Yes, miss Henry,” said Victoria. Victoria stepped inside and shut the door carefully behind her. “Have a seat? “said Miss Henry. Victoria sat down in one of the antique red velvet chairs and looked at the head mistress. On the other side of miss Henry was a lady with short red curly hair who was in about her forties. She smiled at Victoria in a friendly way making Victoria very happy. “Victoria this is Rebecca, she would like to adopt you”. Victoria’s heart was beating so hard she thought it was going to pop out of her chest. Rebecca was signing the adoption papers with a quill pen.
Victoria went to live at Rebecca’s beautiful farm house in the country. Inside it was sparkling clean. Rebecca told her she didn’t need to sweep the floor or make her bed but Victoria still did because she knew nothing else.
Rebecca was extremely energetic. She woke early in the morning and made breakfast then cleaned the house, then went to her sewing group about an hour away. Victoria was offered to go out but she declined and just read, cleaned and lied in bed. Victoria would stay in bed for ages and just stared at the striped wallpaper on the wall. Rebecca came home and saw her in her bed. She sat behind Victoria, and Victoria started to cry. “I don’t know how to deal with being away from the orphanage, I’ve lived there my whole life and it is the only home I really know,” she said. Rebecca embraced her and said “fourteen years is a long time to wait I know but I came for you after all those years. I love you”. “I love you too,” said Victoria.