Betty's World:

Life After the Ruins

    The Bronx in New York was my address until 1927 at thirteen years old, when my parents put me in a wayward home for girls. At sixteen, I ran away and found the streets as my residence. While begging for food, Mr. Cole offered me a warm place, decent food, and a friendly conversation. How could a homeless young lady say no? Except by taking his offer, it could result in a loss of all my self-respect.    ------

      One time when we went to a ball game to play with the girls at the Magdalen Institution. These girls were tough. Some of the meanest and biggest girls of any teams of New York were here, and we had to play them. Why? So, some stupid group of overweight, under brained, gorilla goons with bad breath can collect a few dollars from the state that should be going to the girl’s food and travel instead of their pockets. Not only that, but it was also my time of the month. I was cranky, bloated and very easy to upset. On my second time at bat, the pitcher saw I was coming to the plate, and she yelled to her other teammates that here comes the Kid Crook. That made me mad to begin with. Then she threw the first pitch right into the side of my body. I have had this misfortune happen many times as an accident from other teams, but this was on purpose from that girl. As soon as I could get my standing after being hit, I ran to the pitcher’s spot. I hit that girl so hard one tooth flew right out of her mouth. She started flinging blood everywhere as she shook her head to gather her bearings before falling to the ground. All the other girls from both teams came running to circle around. I just stood there yelling at the dumb blonde to get up and fight me. She just put her hand up to motion she was done while holding her blood dripping jaw with the other one. Then the gorillas came running in. One grabbed me by the arm and the hair, while two other gorillas picked up the other girl from the ground. I was quickly escorted to the prison bus and left there until everyone else finished the game. Suzy filled me in as to the happenings of game and the score. We won again, but she overheard the home team gorillas talking about revenge on me somehow. This bothered me a bit because these people have the power to carry out any threat they can think of. Each institution's gorillas treat their own players like poop and that is ok. But no one else can abuse them from the outside. They do not care for someone hurting their paychecks. So, I am sure there is a bounty on my head now. I have a great team and I am sure they all got my back. Besides that, I always find a way to take care of them in my side deals.

     When we returned to the camp, they placed me in single confinement for a week. Everyone enjoyed this hole of solitude because it was quiet and peaceful, and no one yelled or hit you for that period. Hilda, the gorilla warden, came in on my last day of enjoying some serenity to talk to me. She brought me a meat sandwich and told me that she was glad I hit that girl because we won the game, but encouraged me to do it more often. I asked her if she would punish me for it if I did. She said of course I will, you dumb little kid. Then she left me to finish the sandwich and the day here. After getting out of the hole, as we called it, I began to plan my escape from this hell of a home. I was tired of being a punching bag, a ticket for someone else, and the lowest scum on the human chain a little girl can be. I want out. I spent every opportunity I had looking for a way out. Once I tried escaping in a laundry cart, only to be taken to the other side of camp. That didn’t work. Then I tried getting put in the hospital, but that did not work either. The doctors only sent me back with the guard after determining I was not sick and put me back to work. Once, I tried to climb the wall outside of the toilet rooms. I climbed to the very top only to lose my footing and fall crashing to the ground. My ankle twisted, so I got sentenced to four months of laundry duty. I will keep looking for a way out. Suzy has said that if I go, she will want to go with me. Suzy also found out that the girl at the Magdalen Institution that I knocked the tooth from had escaped too. She found an escape door in the west wall that led through a tunnel to the outside. It was supposed to be locked but was used to let vendors in during the ball games. She went through it during the breaks in the game. No one noticed her gone until she was supposed to pitch again. She was never to be found after that and the police are still looking for her today. Susy thought she knew what door it was and how the lock worked. She, too, has been studying ways to get the hell out of here. The only problem was we did not play that team for several months from now.

This book is estimated completion Fall 2024

In search of Agent and Publisher

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