Chapter One
As if things couldn’t get worse, Elle found her sister in the cold rain in front of the mill. Her sister, Dorianne, seemed to be in a state of shock. Paralyzed, she stood with a blank gaze. Nothing protected her from the elements. She didn’t have anything with her except her clothes. They were the very same ones Elle had dressed her in before she left for work.
There were groups of men leading donkey-drawn wagons away towards the mill. Assorted furniture and belongings stuffed the wagons, overflowing like bubbling brew. At the same time, a man hitching up a sign on the front lawn. Elle squinted at the sign, which read, “MILL FOR RENT. INQUIRE INSIDE.” That morning, the mill wasn’t for rent. In fact, it was still Elle’s the last time she saw it. She cursed at herself as she sped towards her sister, rushing up the muddy road.
“What’s going on?” Elle asked, draping a blanket over her sister.
“They just came out of nowhere,” Dorianne said, sniffing in the cold. Elle could tell she had been crying. Her eyes were puffy and red. “Told me that they were *sniff* taking the mill.”
“What? Why?” Elle wondered why she asked this; she knew very well why.414Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjM5yaC0mJR
“Because…” Dorianne snorted and shook her head. “I don’t know.”
Elle felt a pit in her stomach that boiled and fizzed. She swallowed a lump in her throat. She knew all too well what was happening. Oh, if only she worked harder last month and managed that last payment--
No time to think about that now, she told herself. With her thumb, she wiped away Dorianne’s snot.
“I’ll talk to them. I’ll get us our home back.” Elle kissed Dorianne on the forehead. “Stay under a tree and get dry.”
Dorianne nodded and she slowly lumbered away. Elle watched her sister walk away and she couldn’t help bow her head in shame. This was all her fault. How could she work several jobs for every day of the week, and still come out with barely enough to scrape through? She failed at caring for her sister, and now, she failed at keeping the mill. Elle bit her lip and started walking towards the entrance.
Around her, men threw out furniture with such great force that they were no longer usable. She could only imagine how enraged her father would’ve been. He would’ve cursed them out with the fury of a sailor. Her eyes turned up to the sky, and she begged him to do something. Then, she prayed for some sort of heavenly miracle. She banked on her pious nature and pleaded with the heavens.
Please, she thought. Don’t take our only thing left.
The gray clouds continued to pour, and there was no sign of a response.
She opened the door to the mill and saw the loan lender standing in the middle, observing the chaos around him. He seemed mesmerized in the flinging of things and the wagons and the dust blown up into the air.
Elle stepped behind him. He didn’t notice.
She gave a polite ahem. The loan-lender slightly jumped. He stopped and turned. His face turned bright red when he saw her.
“Mister, can we please talk?” Elle asked him.
The loan-lender was an average man all around and his hair was greying out of stress. He coughed into his handkerchief and looked around. “Please, Miss Hollyander, now is not the time.”
“Not the time?” Elle raised her pitch. “Please, sir, your men are throwing out my things into the rain.”
"Those aren't really my men, they were sent by the state--"414Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjDDKrpFotp
"That doesn't matter. They are throwing away our things, the things I've paid for like a good citizen!"414Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIDcQ9s1JDt
"Um, well, you see--"414Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFgMraCW3m4
"And now, I can't at least choose what I can keep?" Her shoulders fell as she huffed. "You had to come while I was working?"414Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGAhpgPzeJ0
“I--” The loan-lender met Elle’s eyes hesitantly like he was staring into the snout of a dragon. “Look, Miss Hollyander. I tried everything I could. I really sympathized with you, you know.”
She stood akimbo, but her shaky arms didn't really make her seem intimidating.“Yet here we are.”
The loan-lender pointed a stubby finger at her chest. “Don’t hold this against me. I extended your due dates as long as I could.” He looked away. His voice was nothing but sympathetic and soft, and this disappointed Elle even more. He couldn’t have done anything else? She needed this mill. More than anything.
“Please, sir.” She gestured into the sawdust-filled air. “This is all I have left for my family. My father, he--” She stopped so that she didn’t choke on her tears. “See, he was the biggest provider for our family. He paid his taxes. He loved this mill.” Elle looked down on the ground. “He wasn’t like me. And I know... please. I know he would've been so horrified to see it like this.”
The loan-lender placed his hands on his hips and sighed deeply through his nose. “I understand you are devasted, Miss Hollyander. But, you have to admit that you haven’t been paying your dues in time. This is the only way you can pay them back without being arrested.”
“Being homeless is better than not paying some taxes?”
“Yes." 414Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSlZT50QomW
Elle put her face in her hands. She couldn't bear looking around her anymore.
Putting a light hand on her shoulder, the loan-lender added, "I know you are young and don’t know anything, but trust me, being in a difficult situation is far better than being imprisoned.”
Exasperated, Elle looked up. “I’m young, but I know that living on the streets isn’t just a difficult situation.” She clasped her hands rather pathetically. “Sir, my sister is only seven. She can’t live on the streets! She needs to go to school.”
“Give her up to an orphanage then,” said the loan-lender in a disturbingly dismissive tone.
Elle’s mouth gaped open slightly. She shook her head, unable to draw her eyes away from the loan-lender. He continued to ignore her glance.
Swallowing, she managed finally, “you can’t be serious.”
The loan-lender pretended to give a command and walked away.
Elle didn’t bother to call him back. Instead, she stomped furiously out of the door into the rain. She wasn’t sure who she was more upset at -- the loan-lender or herself. Raindrops pelted her coat and hair. Her head was bowed low so that no one could tell that really, she wanted to cry.
“What happened?” asked Dorianne when Elle approached her. Her fingers clung tightly at the blanket enveloping her. “Did he listen to you?”
“No.” Elle huffed in a fit of frustration. “But they never do.”
Dorianne looked down, like there was a very interesting worm on the ground. “What do we do now?”
“I…” Elle trailed off. Her fingers reached up and rubbed her temples, as she meditated on her thoughts and thought. There was no one who could help them. Their father was the last family member they had. And there were no institutions that would take in a young woman with a younger sister and keep them together. Elle looked back at Dorianne and thought about the hours of study she had done. Her sister deserved everything. But, it was impossible to get anything.
The only consistent things in Elle’s life were her jobs. She had just left her shift at a tavern so that she could check on Dorianne. Maybe, they would let them sleep there.
“Come on,” Elle said, holding out her hand for Dorianne. “We need to try to find someone to sleep for the night.”
Dorianne clutched onto her sister’s hand and they walked down the path to the tavern. The rain did not cease. The heavens offered no call nor response, and the sisters continued to ask themselves what the future had in mind for them.
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