The Little Phone Girl

It was so terribly cold. Snow was falling, and it was almost dark. The icy wind howled through the rafters and swirled all around the house where a poor little girl lived with her father and mother. The ramshackle house where they had their home was in a terrible state of disrepair with many holes in the roof where the snow was silently breaching the open wounds of this perished roof. Ice formed on the insides of the house's little windows. The front door offered little or no protection against the incessant winter weather. There was no carpet floor covering and the exposed wooden floor boards were almost completely rotten. The little girl felt so sad for she missed her grandmother with all her heart as it was almost a year earlier to the day, on New year's eve, the little girl's grandmother had passed away leaving her desperately alone, for her parents didn't love her and treated her like a slave.

"I've been putting my life on the line for this family. I've robbed six phones so I could get money to put food on the table for us all. Your mother is upstairs entertaining some punter to help us get more money. And you, what do you do? Nothing, that's what you do, nothing at all. Go and flog those six phones and don't come back until you've sold them all or I'll whip you until your skin is raw."

The little girl's father shouted at her as he gave her a bag containing the mobile phones. The little girl was terrified of her father's bad temper and knew he would beat her badly so she obeyed and took the bag from her father. But she couldn't find her own shoes and had to put on her mother's big trainers, which were much too big for a little girl.

She trudged through the city streets uncomfortably for the trainers were way too big for her. Other kids were playing in the street and adults hurried themselves to the shops to buy party food and other party delicacies, beverages and such like before busily going to their friend's houses or heading home before coming out later for the New Year's eve celebrations. Nobody paid any attention to the poor little girl, her bag of phones, wearing the oversized trainers. The little girl crossed a busy street and had to run quickly to avoid two big cars that were racing, trying to beat each other to a free car parking space. In trying to avoid the cars, the little girl lost one of her trainers and a street urchin ran out on to the road and stole the other one. The poor little girl's feet were frozen and started to turn blue after a short while. She was totally freezing and everyone she approached to sell her phones looked away in disgust. She hadn't managed to sell a single phone and how could she go home now with no money? She'd surely be beaten by her angry father.

The snow continued fall and the little girl was becoming colder and colder, her bare feet becoming bluer and even bluer. She trudged by little houses and could smell the delicious food being prepared for the lucky people's evening meals. Her stomach ached with hunger pains. She badly needed shelter and found an alcove in a corner between two houses. There she huddled with her feet tucked under her for what little warmth she had left in her poor little cold body. A young man, on seeing her phones laid by her, approached her.

"Are they for sale? I'll give you twenty for three of them." He said quickly.

"Really? You'd buy three?" Replied the girl, overjoyed to make a sale.

"Yes really. And I'll even give you some of these too, help you with the cold." He said offering her what looked like sweets.

"Thank you so much." She said taking the sweets and the cash while giving him the three phones.

"You're welcome. Don't take all the sweets at once mind. They're powerful so take care." He warned her as he walked away. She looked at the sweets and smelt them. They didn't have any smell at all. She popped one in her mouth and was underwhelmed by the non-sweet flavour but she felt a warm sensation coming over her and became happy for some strange reason for there was nothing to be happy about. She picked up one of the phones and turned on the light which she pointed at the wall of the house she rested against. She was transported into a beautiful warm and luxurious room with a huge blazing fire in the hearth. She warmed up by the fire and felt so happy. But then the light from the phone went out and the warm room disappeared leaving her outside again in the cold snow.

She got another phone and decided to take another sweet while turning on the phone's torch. She directed the beam at the wall again and saw a dining room table with five roasted chickens on huge serving platters. There were glasses full of wine for the adults and glasses full of soft drinks for the children. There were huge bowls of fries and different kinds of vegetables. There were boats of gravy for all the happy party goers. The roast chickens magically got up and started dancing towards her and then the light went out and she found herself outside once more in the freezing snow.

She took another phone and tried it's light while choosing another sweet from her small collection. The light was pointed at another house. This time she was transported to a lovely warm room with a huge Christmas tree, quite the most magnificent Christmas tree in the whole world. The lights on this magnificent tree danced and soared skywards as she looked in utter wonderment. She could see the lights now in the sky as they seemed to perform a brilliant and spectacular routine high above her. The light from the phone went out but just as it went out the little girl saw a shooting star falling to earth and she remembered what her grandmother told her, "someone is going to die before the night is out".

Her grandmother appeared to her and she was very beautiful and had a glowing halo all around her.

"Dearest grandmother take me with you, take me away from this cold winter night."

Her grandmother took the little girl in her arms and they climbed higher and higher far beyond poverty and mistreatment.

On New Year's day the party goers came out trying to clear their heads. One man spotted the little girl and the three phones by her side. She had frozen to death the night before and died with a smile on her face.

"Look another dead junkie kid. Look at the smile on her face. Obviously a no good thief who robbed those phones and was happy about it before she overdosed."

The crowd agreed with man. They were full of scorn for the poor little phone girl but no one would ever know just how magical her last hours were.

If the crowd had bothered to look above them, they would have seen a cloud form in the shape of the little phone girl smiling down from the heavens.