A Teaser

Day One - A New Beginning

     A carriage clatters onwards to ‘a new beginning’. That's what the toff calls it, keeps saying it throughout the ride. He said it when he and his “ass-so-see-ates” came to the workhouse to sort the children out. He said it when the boys got carted off to the boy's home, Saint Markus. When the home got too full, he said it at Saint Barthelemy. And again at Saint Andrews.

     People call them “homes”, but they weren't. Not really. They were another place to stay until you got shipped off again.

     And some boys did get shipped off. Girls too. Off to unheard-of distant relatives. Off to the countryside. Off to the colonies. Off to places where nobody cared. Places where you were out of people's hair. Places where you were forgotten.

     Everytime the boys were dumped off at Saint this and Saint that, they numbered fewer and fewer. Some taken away, hopefully to that promised new beginning. Others died. Sickness. Accident. Crime.

     A few became men during their stay. They found work and left or were kicked into the streets to bum on street corners. These are the lucky ones.

     As for this boy in the carriage with the toff intoning promises he can't possibly keep… Well, he's alive and lived this long to be sure. Now he too is being carted off to that ‘new beginning’ that keeps getting talked about.

     This is the fate of the former workhouse children.

     ‘A new beginning.’


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