She didn’t have much in life. She had a few knick knacks that she had salvaged from a store fire. The store owners had been despondent at their loss. She was despondent in life in general. They pitied her and gave her their burnt merchandise (that which she could still salvage).  She held onto her burnt wallet. The smell would have turned most people off but not her. She was happy to have a wallet. She had come to terms with this state of being. She was only 13 years old but had lived a lifetime in such a short span of time. She was the head of household, in  away. She was the brain, the heart and the mouth. She was a child warrior. Of course, this was the 21st century and such a concept eluded many people.

It was time for her to march on, however. She was about to go on her own life adventure where she would come face-to-face with a set of people she had never known. She had only seen such people on television. But now, she was going into that alternate world that television had exposed her to. She told the store owners of her pending adventure. She lamented that she had nothing to take or nothing to take it in. Well, she had the wallet thanks to them.

They blinked at her sadness, holding back their tears. Their dreams had just ended and they were packing up as well. The couple looked at each other and they went to the back of the store.  She could hear the noise of things being thrown to the floor. Out they came with a chest filled with their dreams.

They handed the chest to her and placed the wallet therein. She took the midnight train.