Miss Morgan

Five

Summer 1885
-John-

"Thief! Stop that kid!" The bald farmer screams from behind me. I don't look back, I just run. My shoes are too small and there's a hole in the bottom of the left one. I feel blood dripping in my shoe from a blister on my right heel and sweat drips from my shaggy hair into my eyes.

"He stole my necklace!" A woman shouts after me. A swarm of angry farmers and their wives forms quickly and the bald man is right behind me.

I jump over a fence and the board cracks under my weight causing me to fall to the ground with a thud, but I'm quickly back on my feet running into the city. Chicago is crowded and I'm hoping to lose this angry mob following me.

I hit the brick roads and I just need to duck into an alley. I think I can lose them.

But suddenly I am pummeled into the ground, slamming my head into the brick road so hard my teeth rattle and stars dance around my vision.  I try to blink away the disorientation but a fist smashes the left side of my jaw and my mouth fills with blood.

"Hang the thief! Hang the thief!" A crowd chants. I fight for my vision to straighten out as I'm lifted off the ground.

"No.." I mutter incoherently. I didn't steal the valuables for fun. I'm an orphan. I have no one. I just needed money to buy food. I'm just a kid, I don't know what I'm doing.

"Hang the thief! Hang the thief! Hang the thief!" The crowd chants and I'm dragged up a set of stairs and I realize what's happening. I hope it doesn't hurt. I hope it's quick. This is cruel, killing a twelve year old kid over a few necklaces, watches, and coins.

They stand me up and a rope slips around my neck and I take a shaky breath.

"Hang the thief!"

"Hang the thief!"

"Hang the thief!"

It feels like time slows down.

The chanting of the crowd becomes muffled by the sound of my pounding heart, racing in my chest.

I take a deep breath.

I close my eyes.

"Hold up!" A gravelly voice shouts over the crowd. "That is a kid, what is wrong with you people?"

"He stole my necklace!" A woman yells back.

"He stole my watch!" A man adds.

"He's a no good street rat thief!" The man behind me barks. "His actions have consequences!"

"Hanging a child who has not been taught right from wrong, what does that say about your actions. You should be ashamed. He'll leave what he stole here, but he is coming with me and that is the end of it!" The man with the gravelly voice steps up to the platform and cuts the rope from my neck.

He has long black hair, clean clothes, and smells of tobacco and expensive cologne. What does this well-kept man want with me? My clothes are dirty and torn, my hair is straggly, I have nothing.

"Leave what you stole, quickly now, son. We're getting out of here." He demands, gesturing to the gallows where I was seconds away from death. Some of the crowd cheers, most of them boo and continue chanting "hang the thief!"

I empty my pockets and leave behind everything I took from those people. I hope this guy plans on feeding me because now I can't eat. But I suppose this still beats being dead.

Maybe.

I guess this strange man could want to kill me himself. So I shouldn't let my guard down just yet.