Sofia

Chapter One

Medisa, 1981

A chilly cold winter evening in Romania, in a small medieval-looking town, tucked away from the world's eye was a young girl named Sofia. She sat in front of a television in the local supermarket watching cartoons with her knees tucked between her arms. Her long uncut dark hair cascaded past her waist as she tried to comprehend what was being said. This little girl was a sponge when it came to learning. A curious cat. She had begged the local shop owner to let her sit in and watch English cartoons, the perfect way to learn the language, but he was worried a young grubby orphan girl would deter customers. So out of the kindness of his seventy-three-year-old heart, he would let her come in on Sunday mornings to sit in a cold dark room in her thin white nightgown. She would arrive at the shop in the middle of the night and leave before the sun was about to rise.

She would sprint, running up the empty streets, soon to be filled with locals buying goods from the bazaars, and emerge in her ever doomed home- the orphanage. Having been its resident for six years you would think she would get used to entering its dark molded walls, but one never dares to accept their misfortune. It's harder to survive if you do. Therefore, self-named Sofia twirls her way in pretending to be in an enchanted castle rather than a broken shelter. She slowly grazes her hands on the walls, pretending to envision large paintings of prehistoric kings and queens, raising her dim green eyes to imagine sparkling chandeliers relative to water leaks. She runs up the tight staircase remembering to skip the fifth one and jumps into bed before anyone dares notice her disappearance, not that she would be missed. She was small for her age and rather pretty regardless of the many years of being underfed. She rarely spoke, rarely complained, and barely ate, if possible, she would stay that way forever. Unfortunately, it's not necessarily possible to survive this way. We all may or may not have had the opportunity to skim over Charles Darwin's theory of evolution; in which he mentions natural selection. It teaches us that there are certain characteristics one must have to be able to survive this world. To be able to be the best fit. For instance, an extrovert would have a higher advantage than an introvert and so forth. However, Charles Darwin is not who taught young Sofia these truths of life- it was I.