His Graceful Queen

The woman who taught her everything

Hannah came in and saw the chaos, and 20 children in the age of 2-14 came running towards her.”sorry I am late” she said.” I will be making your dinner now, here Louise can you take these books an place them in the usual spot”. Louise took the books from her. Hannah didn’t stop to see anything she just ran to the kitchen, biled the water and poured over the oats. Oatmeal was the dinner everyday, they didn’t get any money from the headmaster to buy food, but at least she was a master at making oatmeals. It was only her, who was allowed to make the meals and if any of the other made the dinner, he would take away her privilege, once she had been sick, like really sick, and Louise had made the dinner for her. When he found out Louise got beaten with the belt, Hanna would die before that was ever going to happen again. She hurried with the dinner. After a few minutes the oatmeal was ready for serve. All the kids gathered their plates and stood in a line. She gave them each a scoop and said hello to each of them and smiled. When the kids had gotten their scoop, they sat down at the table.

Besides Louise who was the next oldest with her 14, there was four (Toby, Tom, Tricia, Paula and Maria) of them who was 13 years old and 3 who was 12 years (Sam, Martin and Melanie). The 8 of them helped me taking care of the rest, we had divided the 22 kids amongst us in small groups, with a color name. It helped the little one to follow us. Hannah called them her small big troops and my small troops.

Hannah did what she could to teach them what she knew about the outside world. She taught them how to read and write. It was important to her, that they never had to end up on the streets, and they might have a slim chance of surviving if they knew something about the world.

Hannah sat there quietly and ate her food, she just scooped it in, hot as it was, and while she ate she thought about how she ended up in school. It was pure luck that it happened. : When Hannah was 12 a woman named Sophia worked in the orphanage. Sophia, was this amazing beautiful 40 year old woman. She had brown long hair, reaching down the middle of her back, that she would always carry in a bun on top of her head. She had the most calming brown eyes, and a voice so soft and calm that no matter what mood you were in, she would make you feel appreciated and loved. Sophia worked in the kitchen and Hannah loved cooking with her, so she made sure that her chores would be cooking. The other kids didn’t want it anyway. While they cooked Sophia began teaching her the basics of reading and writing. In the beginning on recipes, and groceries but later she brought small books for Hannah to read. Sophia would often let Hannah sit and read in the corner while the bread or the food was in the oven. One day the headmaster found out what Sophia had taught her. He came early one day, while the bread was in the oven and Hannah was reading a book for Sophia. He saw them and Hannah could see that he was furious. Hannah knew that as soon as Sophia had left for the night, she would get punished, maybe even by the belt. But instead something different happened. Sophia convinced the headmaster that Hannah was a smart girl, who might get adopted a bit faster if she could read and that she would do better in life. The headmaster thought about it for awhile before he smirked and told Sophia, that if Hannah was allowed to go to school, Sophia should do him a favour, and then Hanna would be allowed to go to school, as long as she still took care of her chores. Sophia looked at Hannah, and sighed, she told the headmaster she would do anything for him, as long as Hannah was allowed to go to a proper school in the city. Hannah felt it was the biggest victory of her life but she was still afraid. She laid all night waiting for him to call her, so he could punish her, but it didn’t happen. Sophia stopped coming the day after that. Hannah had no idea what happened to her, but she didn’t have any doubt that it was about the headmaster and the favour he asked from her. Hannah felt she owed Sophia everything.

All the kids were making noises with their plates. 11 minutes past sundown. She needed to rush this. “guys as soon as you finish your eating, rush upstairs, he’s here in 4”The kids looked at her with terror. Louise and the big troops called all the kids. The babies carried up to the dorm room and I grabbed their plates, hurried with the washing and drying. The older ones cleaned their own plates. Everyone was running, no one wanted to meet his wrath. 1 minute left, and the last kid ran upstairs. She grabbed a cloth, cleaned the table and the pots, her left wrist stinged a bit but way less than earlier, she was relieved. She wouldn’t have known how to clean tomorrow if it kept hurting.

When she was placing the pots in the cabinet, she heard the door to the kitchen open. Her heart rate instinctively rose, but she forced herself to raise her back and stand still, like a deer caught in the light of a car, while starring at the floor. “my my what do we have here, he smirked, are you not done with your chores today”. Hannah answered, “I am done with my chores, sir All the pots are in the cabinet, the kids well fed, and the table cleaned”. He was close to her now, she could feel his breath, she could smell it, it smelled like most of the alley, old, dying, and a bit alcoholised. He slapped her on the face “don’t you dare talk back to me” he hissed. Then his hands started moving on her body, he grabbed her breasts, and with the dress being old and small, he got a good feeling. Her body was really curvy, even though she was skinny, almost malnourished, her boobs, hips and butt just seemed to exist by its own free will. She wanted to throw up but forced herself to stand still. She knew it would just anger him more if she began to move. So, she stood as a statue with him fondling her. “He fondled a bit more and then he said “just wait b**ch, as soon as you turn 18 I am going to show you, what useless piece of air you are. I am going to take what you have been bulging around me for years. You know face down ass up, is the only thing that makes girls like you useful”. His voice scared her, he sounded like a maniac, his fondling had become more and more aggressive and so had his words towards her. “only 6 weeks left” he said with a grin. Hannah was surprised that he remembered, but she didn’t utter a word. He finally let her go “I am looking forward to your birthday he said, see you tomorrow”. The headmaster left, Hannah began breathing again. It was not the first time he was being like this, but his words made her feel like all hope for her life was gone. But for tonight she made it, and if the books, and her suffering, could help her troops, it wouldn’t even matter, then every second of this would have been worth it and Sophia’s favour to him wouldn’t have been for nothing.