A Happy Ending?

Crouched in the doorway at the end of the alley, Nancy watched them rub their hands by the flames.

Shivering, she dragged her bare feet behind a crate. Tom took out some sausages and stabbed them with a long skewer.

She crawled behind them, drawn by the smell of food.

Bill turned. ‘Want something to eat?’

Nancy nodded eyes wide, swallowing saliva.

‘What’ve you got?’ asked Sid.

The child shook her head, raising her empty palms.

‘Get lost,’ Jack shouted.

Nancy scurried back to the doorway and lit another match.

Maybe next time her story would have a happy ending…

****

The picture reminded me of the Little Match Girl, the short story of the poor girl who lit the matches she couldn’t sell to warm her hands and light up her hopes and dreams, written by the Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen, in 1845. Unfortunately, the match girl didn’t have a happy ending, but who knows if Nancy will be luckier…

Let’s give Nancy’s story another go…

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