CHAPTER ONE

“Are you questioning my professionalism? Are you implying that I am, to the nth, absolutely incapable of running this establishment?”
There was a long pause after Matron’s heated tirade.
“Yes, I know about the global economical crisis that it affecting everyone!” she snapped.
It obviously wasn’t just the said global economical crisis that was affecting her – PMS, Pissed-Off Matron Syndrome, was getting to her too.
Leina leaned in as close as she dared to the door that was slightly ajar.
Eavesdropping, she had learnt, very long ago, was one life-skill necessary for survival in this hell of a place.
“Our oldest resident is seventeen.”
Incredible. For once in her life, Matron had referred to her as a “resident” instead of with some other patronizing label.
“And how do you suppose we feed and clothe the other children? With scraps and rags?”
As if it isn’t already like that, Leina thought to herself with a glance down at her chemise that was practically moth-eaten.
She shifted herself to get a better angle of the room. Austere and pragmatic like the rest of the building, it was equipped with the bare essentials of an office. Matron sat at the table with an old-fashioned phone at her ear. She swatted at her frizzy hair in her usual hot temper and yelled some more obscenities into the mouthpiece. Any more up the decibel scale and Leina could swear, the other person would have their eardrums shattered. Behind matron was a cabinet that Leina planned, by any means, to get to later.
“We shall discuss this further then,” Matron said sharply and hung up. The clock chimed nine o’clock.
Bed-time. The race for either life or death.
Leina skittered down the corridor as quickly and quietly as she could before Matron could come out and scream “Rogue child at her!” – Not that she hadn’t on many occasions.
The door slammed and the click of Matron’s heels on the floor began to reverberate around the corridor. Clutching her glow-stick close to her, in case Matron’s eyesight had improved overnight (highly unlikely), Leina turned the corned and then climbed stealthily up the staircase. The yellow light of her glow-stick showed her a small puddle of water that was slowly dripping down the steps. Gross. Little Akira still hadn’t learnt how to control his bladder.
Taking care to avoid the three consecutive steps that creaked with the slightest touch, Leina took a massive lunge forwards and then scrambled up the remaining steps. She burst through the dormitory where a frenzy of children ran about, stuffing all their brightly coloured toys under their mattresses and clearing away any traces of the games that Matron frowned upon; dominoes, Monopoly, anything that was capable of brining delight.
“Quickly now! Into bed!” Leina hissed and switched off the lights. They all jumped into bed, ducked their heads under their blankets and squeezed their eyes tight-shut.
Silence. Not a sound. And then the dreaded three creaks came.
“NO NOISE OR YOU WILL ALL BE SENT AWAY!” Matron’s shrieking came like a blast from a bomb. All the children shivered in their skins.
Except Leina. She was sending herself away tonight.

After Matron had retreated to her own alcove (known because classical music was being played from her gramophone), Leina jumped out of bed and whisked the rug away from under her bed.
“What are you doing?” A little girl asked and sat up in bed. The other all children all followed suit.
Leina held the glow-stick up to her face “Do you really want to know? I am…releasing the monster…” She hoped her voice was scary enough to creep all the other children out. Half the children squealed and buried their heads under their pillows. Things would be easier if they were all gullible like that.
“There’s no such things as monsters,” the little girl said haughtily, “They don’t exist. You’re trying to get away.”
Leina ignored her and lifted up a loose floorboard where all her treasured possessions had been hidden. She pulled on a jumper and then shoved everything else into a Hello Kitty bag: a broken pen, a pirated copy of The Emancipation of Mimi which had been scribbled out to say Leina and a few bank notes.
Only one thing wasn’t there, the one thing that she had meant to take out first. Her fingers groped frantically around the pit and then there it was. It had almost escaped her reach. She yanked the locket away from the two floorboards where it got lodged in and clasped the necklace around her neck securely with a rush of relief.
“You’re going nowhere!” The little girl announced shrilly. She stood with her arms outstretched.
“Respect your elders, Junko-chan,” Leina said authoritatively. No commotion please, no commotion please.
“You’re not an adult so why should I? You’re three years away from being twenty, Leina.”
Canine mother! This little pretentious brat was barring the way out and totally devastating her chances of escaping this purgatory, this life of monotony
After I read some of your comments, thought I might post some notes up because it turns out that when I pasted the entire chapter, the whole thing didn’t turn out!

OK…..she hasn’t lived here her whole life. (It says later that she’s only been here 7 years, but that bit got chopped off by the word limit)

There is a prologue to this by the way so it would make more sense.

On the subject of the orphans…yeah, little Junko is shrewd, annoying, hmmm…..

thanks for your comments guys!

i just sent my asus g1s-a1 laptop in for repair about a week ago and got it back yesterday. it had TONS of problems..mainly blue screen, yaty yaty yata, etc

before…i used to be able to get on the internet fine wirelessly. now i put my laptop back on my desk (same place ive always kept it) and now it cant find my connection and my routers just under my room. the wirless card’s enabled, etc. but it says tht its out of range of any connections.

then when i plugged it in, it seemed to find my connection????

then when i unplugged it, it kinda just died (the connection)

could it be possible tht my wireless chip was damaged on the way back? cuz it wasnt packaged very securely. but it doesnt seem any damage is done

o, btw its running vista home premium

It’s an entry for a horse story contest but I REALLY need some help. First of all, I want to know what you think (is the writing good or bad? Does it sound too much like something out of a novel, not a short story?). Secondly, this is about 700 words – and the contest limit is 500. So I need you to tell me, what parts do you think aren’t needed? Where do you think I could shorten it? Or…do you think I should just forget about trying to shorten it, it would ruin the story? THANKS!!!!!

The black horse stood in the chute on Ronnie’s left, just over a swell of thick, lofty grass and sand. She allowed herself to stare at him for a long moment, gaze unwavering. Then the brisk voices of adults carried to her ears.

“Well, the best of them are on the ship,” she heard her father say. “They’ll sell for a good amount of money and, besides, the public will take it much easier than if we’d killed them.”

“Culling wasn’t the solution,” another man agreed. “The rest can be let free; we’re still keeping a good 200 on Sable Island, just enough for it to support.”

“Right.”

The black horse suddenly snorted, plunging his nose into the air and pawing the ground several times. He looked painfully awkward in the tight wooden stall, kicking up dust and clamming against the sides whenever he so much as moved. Dirt had tangled into his thick coat and mane, and his legs were caked high with mud. Even his eyes seemed to be clouded.

Now Ronnie’s father was moving towards the corrals of mares and foals. The one nearest the gate stuck its head over hopefully as he approached, eyes strewn with desperation, chest pressing against the wood. But no physical power was needed. In a swift motion Ronnie’s father opened the gate, giving way to the free land.

One by one the horses leaked out, until there was nothing but a stampede of thumping hooves and wind-carried mane, of jostling bodies and moving muscle. Within a minute the herd was a mere blob on the horizon, and Ronnie’s father was speaking again.

“Now. Just the stallion to worry about,” he muttered, tilting his head toward the individual chute.

The black horse had stopped, sides heaving, ears flattened as his herd escaped without him.

“It’s only one horse to be killed,” the other man pointed out. “We finally have him captured – securely captured, Tom. He’s not getting away this time. Don’t you remember last year, when you walked too close to the holding pen? That kick kept you out of the saddle for months.”

“I know,” Tom agreed huskily.

“We’ll be killing a pain,” he said. “Now come with me, to the van, for the rifle. That is, as long as you can keep watch on him, Ronnie.”

“Of course.” After all, she’d been keeping watch on him the whole afternoon.

Left alone, Ronnie narrowed her eyes against the glare of sunlight and licked her parched lips, without letting her gaze stray from the stallion. For several long moments he paced restlessly, coat bathed with sweat, breathing laboured, great nostrils flaring in the island air. Ronnie knew it was hopeless. The walls were built tough and sturdy, beyond anything a horse could find its way out of. A perfect trap.

At last Ronnie rose to her feet. Kicking her way through the deep sand, she found the horse’s stalll, running a hand over the hard wood and large metal latches. The entire stall was reverberating with the thrust of the stallion’s body, no attention paid to her. She bit her lip and squinted against the rising sand. It was a simple metal lock. Ronnie slipped it through and opened the gate.

Immediately, a gust of wind rattled it from her own grasp and flung it against another side. The stallion whinnied high and shrill and then blindly plunged through, knocking her shoulder in his own splendour and glory. Ronnie felt a wave of dizziness as she staggered backwards, tripping to the hard ground. The jolt of hitting it send her rigid. After a moment she felt a small spasm of pain and gripped at her shoulder, and as she struggled to her feet she could only blink the grit and sand from her eyes, hope turning to desperation as she wildly searched to find the tall black shape. All she wanted was one last glimpse.

But the stallion had vanished. Even in her dizziness it was clear to Ronnie that he was gone. As she stared into the distance, blinking back sweat and tears, she instinctively rubbed her shoulder. It was throbbing, now with greater force.

She rolled up her sleeve. There, on her shoulder, the wild horse’s knock had left a small, round bruise, now turning purple. Proof that she was the one who’d saved his life.

I have a cat that I rescued here in China: He is 6 weeks old (estimate) and appears to be in great health (eats/excretes/sleeps/plays/etc). We are taking him to the vet to be checked out tomorrow to make sure he is ok and get him all the necessary shots. The problem I have is getting him back to the USA. I will be traveling for a few more months, so it’s not an option to keep him with me until I leave and i have someone who can get him from LAX and take care of him. I have emailed multiple companies who claim to be able to transport a pet safely and securely, but I am not sure their assurances cover young kittens or even if they’re legitimate. They say that they keep the animals in the “pressurized and temperature-regulated” cargo holds in the planes, but these areas are not 100% reliable and I would be heartbroken if anything happened to the little guy. Can anyone offer some suggestions, advice or recommendations?

I am getting mine replaced but i need to send my old one in. The person on the phone had me troubleshoot the problem by doing option number two on this page. http://www.bbgeeks.com/blackberry-guides/guide-to-wiping-your-blackberry-88202/ However when i reinstalled pandora my account info was still there. How can I wipe everything off if securely? Thanks in advanced.

Looking for some input. I bought my son an X box 360 3 years ago. Since then I have had to send 4 different X boxs back to Microsoft of which they would send me a new one back. Each time the X box they provide has worked either for a month or up to a year but then all of the sudden the dreaded “Red ring of death” occurs. This has happened on 4 X boxs I have had already. I just got a new X box sent to my by Microsoft today. before I try to hook it up and see if it works I wanted to see if there was anything that I should be doing to ensure it works properly or if there is anything that I may be doing that is causing me to crash these X Boxs. When I have the X Box i hook it up to a good, new TV, plug the power source/box securely in the back of the X box and then securely in a power surge protector, then I hook up the AV jacks firmly into the X box and then into the TV. Thats all you do to hook it up right? I dont have my son on X box live as of yet so I am not doing any type of eternet connection as of yet. Basically, I want to know why I have gone thru so many X boxs that all of the sudden get the red ring of death and what I can possibly do to avoid it? Tips are welcome

I’ve received a private offer for an item on ebay via ebay but my item still has a few auction days left. I want to accept the offer how can i do this securely?

What would i ask the buyer to do? Should i send the item or should he pay for it first?

What is the safest procedure for both of us?

Thanks

For the past 2 months this has been bugging the hell out me! Every 5 minutes or so, this window appears out of nowhere. Its about 4″ x 5″.

Top left is the Network logo (a grayish marble in a box). Across the top in boldface it reads: WebDAV File System Authentication. Below this in regular face it reads: Enter your user name and password to access the server at the URL “http://idisk.mac.com/(myname)/” in the realm “idisk.mac.com.”
Your name and password will be sent securely.
Below this is:
Name (Over a white box with my name printed in it.)
Password (Over a white box with dot representing my password)
Below this is a check box next to: Remember this password in my Keychain
And finally, two oval boxes: Cancel and OK

If I click OK, the window disappears, and a couple seconds later, another smaller window appears with same logo, that reads: The user name or password is not valid. Please try again. And there is an oval box: OK. I click OK, and the original box comes back.

If I click Cancel, the window disappears for a couple seconds later, then comes back. If I click Cancel a second time, it dissappears for a about 5 minutes. Then it comes back, and the whole starts again. I contact the macHelp folks, who gave me very assistance since my warranty is expired. They walk me through resetting my Keychain password. The first time I tried this, the problem seems to go away, but was back in identical fashion a couple days later. I’ve doing this again, but now appears to have no effect. Mac says they can fix it, and its an easy fix, but I have to bring it in–along with my checkbook, of course.

Can anyone help me? I’m not the most computer literate person on the planet, but will try anything reasonable.

Thanks!

right, okay well i recently installed internet explorer 8 and when i go on to the o2 website (www.o2.co.uk) .. then i click on send a free text message but it diverts you to the login bit.

then it comes up with a security warning saying do you only want to view the web page content that was delivered securely
??
and when i login with correct user-name and password it doesn’t load the page
and at the top it says the web address is about:blank

what the hell is going on and how can i solve this problem??

many thanks x

I am not doing anything illegal, I’ve been living at my current address for almost a year, and been my receiving my mail, and packages as such. I just dont have my licence for this state yet. I bought an item on ebay and the seller told me my item had been shipped back in december and sent me a picture of the receipt they had bought from the post office for my item. She also told me that went to her psot office to check and found out that a notice had been left for me from my postal carrier about this package.
i remember signing this notice and leaving securely in my mail box for the mailcarrier to find so my package could be delievered, but it since has not been delivered. I dont know if the item has been sent back to the sender, or if its waiting a t the post office for me. Help!!!