Alley Baby

A Little Homeless Girl

There once was a little girl that got abandoned by her parents in an alley, and she stayed there for 5 years. Pretty pathetic, right? I should know. I’m that little girl. I’m Allie, and this is my story. When I was 5, I said my first word: MacDonald’s. There was a MacDonald’s right across the street from my alleyway, and I heard people talk about MacDonald’s a lot. So, I learned to copy them. When I was 5, I got kidnapped. I had decided to explore the world, because, I had figured, I couldn’t spend my whole life in this alley. I walked out of the alley and into a drugstore, where there were a lot of sketchy people. I didn’t know what sketchy was, or that I should avoid these people. I walked up to one of them and yelled “MACDONALD’S!” the only word I knew. The guy took the opportunity and seized me then. He put me in his truck and was about to tie me up, but then decided I was too dumb to try and escape, which I was. My kidnapper took me inside his lair and dropped me in some sort of cage. When I was in the cage, I took a good look around the place. The place was big and dark and it smelled like mold and alcohol. The floors were a mix of green and gray (not a pretty color) and I thought “I need to get out of here!” so I tested out my voice. “meee? meeeeeeee? MEEEEEE? MOOOOO! PAPOPADOONG! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” I squealed and shrieked and the kidnapper let me go because I was annoying. He taught me some words so I would stop screaming, and before I left, I could have a tiny conversation! “Hi! Want MacDonald’s?” was pretty much all I could say. But I was making progress!

When I turned 10, I bumped into a guy. “Hi there! Want to get MacDonald’s?” was still kind of all I could say. But my vocabulary was expanding! I felt all weird and my stomach had butterflies. I had a crush on this guy, but I didn’t know what a crush was. I told him my one sentence, and he said “Sure! Why not? I’m Caesar, but everyone calls me Ed.” I said hi again and we went to MacDonald’s. He told me all about himself, and I listened to every word. Since I grew up in an alley, all I had for entertainment was myself. All I could do was think about the world and what I saw everyday. So, I was more of a thinker than a doer. I still am, so when I was at MacDonald’s with Ed, I could pretty much understand most of the human language, I just hadn’t figured out how to say the words out loud. You might think that’s dumb, or that’s not how humans work. But think about babies. They don’t know how to move their tongue to make noise. That’s how I was. So I could understand Ed. I asked him “You? Age?” which was kind of my way of asking “How old are you?” He got the memo and told me he was 13. I said “Me-10.” He asked me “Where do you live?” and I looked around for my alley. Since MacDonald’s was right across the street, I found it quickly. I pointed and he made a worried face. “You live in the alley across the street?” I said “Yeh” and he asked about my parents “Non” I told him, and he taught me some more words so I could have a small conversation instead of a tiny one! “Thanks!” I gratefully poured out to Ed. He waved and I walked away.

Another thing I did when I was 10 was bump into a girl. I asked her my question, and she said “Ugh, why would I go to MacDonald’s with you? I don’t know you and you look like a rug rat.” then she gave me a small shove. Now, Ed had taught me to defend myself, but I got confused about that. I thought he meant “Whenever someone pushes you, fight back.” But he really meant when someone was trying to attack me. I charged at the girl and knocked her out. I thought “Well, that deals with her!” and walked away.

At 11, I rearranged my alleyway. I kind of only went back to the alley when it was midnight and I felt sleepy. I usually woke up at 10:00 am and went out to see the world. At around 11:45 pm, I asked someone for the nearest MacDonald’s and went home. After I was done rearranging, There was a trash can in the left corner that held my pet rat Susan, whom I would feed right before I went to bed. I never knew if Susan was male or female. In the right corner, a crate stood, that contained an orb spider and my old crib that was the only home I had known. See, my mother had left me with just an infant car seat and a blanket. My bed was in between the trash can and the crate. The floor of the bed was made up of old newspapers and another blanket I had found on a chair in MacDonald’s. I got my clothes from bins in the park that said “Donate Clothes” and things people left on benches and chairs. My food was mostly from the people of MacDonald’s because I figured out that if I walked into MacDonald’s looking hungry, the staff would give me food. I left a bucket out under the florist’s gutter when it rained for water to drink. That bucket went next to my bed. I was pretty much homeless. Until 3 days after I rearranged my alley.