Happiness Required

• Leala Xu
• Short Story
• 2012

Trailing down the staircase, Vera looked down at her slippers, and thought about her parents. Sighing breathtakingly, she made herself a mug of water, and sat down sipping it. She looked around at the sad looks of the other orphans, and felt tears spring to her eyes. She'd never met her mother and her father, and had no siblings. Her appetite was gone and lost. Vera stormed back upstairs without a word, and lay on her bed. She didn't want to cry, but, she did, until her face was damp from all those tears, and she let her hair loose. She stood up and locked her door, and kept on crying, whilst flipping through her Werna's Orphanage Happy Times Album. She clasped it tightly, and thought, I've never had one happy time at this horrible orphanage. All I need is a family. My true family.
And with those words in mind, Vera dried her tears roughly, and went downstairs to see Mike, her violin tutor.