Lonely Little Me

* Chapter 1 * — Welcome To Town —

— Welcome To Town –

In a faraway kingdom across mountains and rivers was a little town by the name of Owswell. Its inhabitants were not even up to five hundred people, that is how small and unpopulated the town was, but they were fine with it and did not even want to increase their number. Yet, that town was full of mysteries, secrets, and the people were one of a kind. They all knew each other’s family and history for decades, so much that they did not even need signs, name tags or street names to find their way around town.

It was so that when new people came to live there, or that tourists came to visit, it was impossible for them to find their way and navigate without having a guide, someone to ask or someone to show them around. The stranger thing though, was that nobody knew the reason why they kept it like so during all those years without anybody even trying to change it by putting signs or indications. They just kept it so. Thinking it was the reason why less and less people came to visit their special town, but they couldn’t care less. It didn’t bother them.

Everyone knew things about everyone, there were no secrets among them… Or so they believed. For, some managed to have some pretty dark ones.

Rumours and stories spread like something else in that village.

It was so, that the day the Skats came into town and the mayor himself asked the townspeople who were present that day to welcome them as one of their own, in the count of an hour, the whole town was aware. From what they looked like to the house they were occupying was known to the majority of people in Owswell.

Though, for the first time in a long time, their curiosity died down fast and no one had the courage to ask questions. They were waiting for the mayor to clear their doubts and explain what was going on with the newcomers… But it never came. Alas, the mayor never mentioned them again until the new one came, and everyone knew the new mayor didn’t get to meet the Skats. New things started emerging and everyone forgot the hot topic of the town at that time.

That is why, five years after their arrival when their house got caught in a fire, nobody even bothered to bring a drop of water to extinguish the destructive fire. They just came, as if a show was taking place and it needed spectators. The fire had almost died out and ravaged the entire house before anyone thought of offering their help to the people living in the house. Some were just shocked and mesmerized at the same time and others were actually scared to move. In the end, not much could be saved.

When the Skats arrived in town, it was just a husband and a wife pregnant with their first child looking for a place to have a fresh start. Nobody asked them any questions even if they were itching to and the Skats preferred it that way. They were a quiet couple yet bizarre family, the husband was a tad weird and extremely possessive and to had anger issues but the wife was a lovely neighbour and their daughter, born three months after their settlement in the town was an adorable child, the sunshine of her parents. True, they were not very communicative with the rest of the town but they didn’t need to, much to the latter’s displeasure. The family liked to keep things for themselves and tended to keep their nose out of other’s business. For a town where everyone knew everyone’s dirty little secrets… It was not very appreciated.

They had quite a happy family life until… That fire broke out of nowhere and changed their lives forever… For the survivors that is. That fire had caused the family important members; a wife and mother, an unborn son and brother. It left the remaining members devastated, so much that the father left his only remaining family member soon after. No one knew where he went nor why and no one never heard of him since. He just left one morning and never came back.

For the little girl he left behind when he disappeared, she tried to survive, go on living the best she could. Though it was hard to do especially for a kid and on top of that, in a town where you are hardly accepted, with a doubtful background history full of mystery which no one understood not even the one concerned but the child never gave up.

When people did not understand something, they tend to speculate, and when their speculation leads them to worst case scenarios which tends to exaggeration most of the time. This led them to fear, hatred, frustration and so on, and what is the best way to express those? Through violence of course.

And that is what happened to the poor girl left behind. She was bullied by the kids and the adults pretended to know nothing about it, and if they could, they even made matters worse. That child was the punching ball of their pent-up frustration. Not even a soul came to help and the girl had nowhere else to go as she knew nothing but that town and her parents had told her that the world outside town was a dangerous one. So, she did the only thing she could, she stayed, held it in and everyday told herself it would get better with time but the thing is… It only got worse. When she got older, she then understood that she was only lying to herself to get by. But she continued until she felt nothing more and time went by, even though she could retaliate to their brutalities she did nothing of the sort because it had become a habit to do nothing. They saw her as weak and helpless and their interests in her eventually died down the following years.

Townsfolks called her the cursed one, Judy lonely, fire Judy, dirt Judy, reject and many more awful names. Though all those nicknames mattered not to Judy. Because she knew very well the name her parents gave her was none of those. But maybe one did bother her: outsider, which she never understood the reason behind such an uncanny word that suggested many things. That word was unrelated to her, for starters she was undoubtedly a citizen of the town, it was even written on her birth certificate, or was that not proof enough that she was from the town? Some were even witnesses of her birth! So why call her an outsider? As if she was not part of the town and came to live there, that, was her parents. She did not know.

She never left the town either, since the day she was born up to now, she only gazed at the outside world from afar, always wondering what was there but never setting foot there, unlike some others in the village. Judy could do with the other names; they were just words from people that knew nothing of her. But outsider she had a hard time swallowing that one alone for it was denying her roots. And that, she could not settle with.

Though Judy Skats was not just your average typical young girl. No, she was the only redhead in her village, and probably the only one most of the townspeople have seen in their lifetime, for, having red hair was indeed something rare. It was her hair that won her the nickname: fire Judy —because her hair had the same intense shade of red and orange like fire and when she let it loose on her back, it resembled dancing flames; and maybe the fire incident that changed her life forever as well. It is a horrible reference but people did not care.

She had long curly hair that she would always keep in braids, despite the look of people when she passes, and the memories it brought her when the wind blows it away, she was proud of her hair, she loved it so much, it was her pride though she did not remember either one of her parents having red hair, her father had black hair and her mother was a blonde. Though she had hoped her brother would also be a redhead, she never saw his hair colour.

Every day was the same.

She would wake up in the morning, by the first sound of the neighbour’s hen. It was kind of a ritual for the both of them, a way of communicating, she even considered it her only friend in that town and talks to it sometimes when she feels like it. It would stand on the white painted fence limiting his owner’s farm. Shouting as loud as it could and moving left to right until it would notice Judy, as if it was its cue to step down and walk away. For it, it had done its job for the day. Though Judy never noticed since when they started doing like so nor when it became their habit, she enjoyed it.

Feeding animals that she would either find, save or been given to by pity was one of the things Judy would find herself doing every day.

She also mauled people’s lawns for money, took care of farms, cleaned up houses and such. In short, she was willing to do things no one would even volunteer for or even knew such things existed. That is how she made money and was able to fulfil her needs.

Sun down, she would be covered in dirt, in mud and who knows what else, from which she got the name dirt Judy of course. Though it wasn’t a nice name, it was reasonable and acceptable to be called that when you are covered in dirt and mud from working all day.

Chores finished, pockets full of pounds, food, medicine, useful things, she would head home.

Life as it is for Judy Skats wasn’t sad, happy nor horrible, at the end of the day she would say “Another day well used.” Yes, for her, it was only a question of survival and only survival, nothing more nothing less.

At least that is what she thought until her life was turned upside down again from one single event, her curiosity kicking in and she had to do the one thing her parents told her never to do and for the first time she disobeyed their will. To which she would soon face the consequences.

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