Part Three

Here comes what you've all been waiting for, part three.

The Girl Who Loved The Moon
Part Three

"I was born in Indiana in a small town. We lived in a small house. Me, my mother and father. We were poor, I knew that. When my father got sick with pneumonia, my mother panicked. She tended him herself, as we were too poor to go to the hospital. She stayed by his side till the end. She wouldn't leave him, even to eat. I brought her food, but she wouldn't eat. She left it on the floor. Eventually, she died in her sleep. And I was alone. I was only five

"I took all the money I could find, but it wasn't much. I left the house, my only home. I hadn't learned letters or numbers, any reading or writing. I was all alone with myself and my stuff. I had a bag with the money, some food, a change of clothes, and a blanket and small pillow. That was all I took when I left my home. I walked until I found a city. We had lived not far from Indianapolis, I knew that much. I went into the big city. I looked for kids my age, or adults who looked nice. But I found on one. The first night, I slept on the side of the road. Then, after a few days of wandering, I found a book shop. A library. I went inside. The lady there helped me. She gave me food and water and a place to stay. She taught me letters. I slept on a couch in the back of the library. It was the closest thing I had to a home.

"But then the library shut down. By then, I was 7, and I could read and write. I wasn't old enough to make good money, but I could make something. I worked my way over from Indianapolis to here, in Ohio. It took me a long, long time. I slept on roadsides and in parks. I worked where I could and bought food and clothes when I outgrew what I wore. I lost my blanket, but I bought a strip of fabric and used that. I kept going. But since I was 5, I haven't had a real home or family. I only have one family. Only one constant in my troubled life.

"The moon. Every night, in the parks or on the roadsides, I saw the moon. When I was still at home, still small, I looked out my window every night to see the moon. The moon was my only reason to keep living. My father was dead, my mother loving him so much, even more than me, so she would die with him. That library, closed. Gone in a wink. The moon was the only thing that has lasted forever. Its my motivation. My reason to keep going, keep living, keep trying." Joanna told me the whole story. I closed my eyes. I couldn't imagine it. Her own mother died for her father without a backwards glance to her only child. I opened my eyes, and I realized that I was crying.

"When I got here, I went to the school. They let me in. I stayed with a family for a year, and then I had to go. I live on my own now. But the school still lets me in. They give me breakfast and lunch. I get my own dinner. I work in a diner as a garbage person. It's so hard to keep going, but I see the moon and I realize I cannot stop." Joanna stopped talking. Her own face was wet with tears. "I should go now."

"What?" I wondered, but then I saw the clock. It was 5. My parents would be home soon. "Where do you stay?"

"I can't tell you. But I think you will find me. See you at school." Joanna said. She stood up. I gave her a bag to put her stuff in and I fished a blanket out of my closet. I handed it to her, knowing that she might need it. She smiled, took it, and walked out the door.

Later that night, I realized what Joanna meant by saying that I would find out. I looked out my window. It was 9 pm, and it was dark out. I saw the park from my window. I saw a figure standing in the darkness, looking at the moon. Tears leaked from my eyes. Joanna's story was so sad, yet so real. I cried for her. For the girl who loved the moon.