“Annemarie” By: Moonliel-Lucifer

Part One of Child Labor Arc

Summary: Chicago during the child labor era had many stories of the kids that lived through the time. Here are only a few of those. This is the story of Annemarie, an orphan with big dreams.

-o-o-O-o-o-

My name is Annemarie and I am an orphan. When I was just a baby my mother abandoned me, either that or she died. Well, there was this lady. I guess she found me, I don’t know where, but after finding me, you could say, she adopted.

After she passed away her house was given to the government, seeing as I’m not old enough to gain the house in any will she could have left behind. I had no place to go, so now I live in an alley behind the Mandel Brothers Factory, which is also a store up front on the street. This alley is so putrid that it actually feels as if my nose is melting away.

I live alongside my new friend Joseph. He’s so nice. Him and me, we’re like brother and sister now. His family died in an accident in a factory. I think his father worked in the coalmines, but that’s like 300 miles away from here. Here is Chicago, by the way. Instead of taking the train everyday, which is only like two cents per mile, he decided to live there until his death, never even seeing Joseph grow up. I never asked Joseph why he wasn’t with his father; he didn’t like talking about it, so I didn’t bring it up.

I don’t eat much, except for scraps I tend to find here in this horrible alleyway. I also had to lie to get my job, just like many other children out there. Most of the people that work as a seamstress are women and small girls. I work for 12 hours a day. Most of the other kids have been working since they were 5 years old. When I lied it was about my age. I said I was 11 years old, when I’m really only 9.

There was this girl, Helen, and she found about my lie. I’m afraid that she’ll say something and I’ll end up losing my job over it. I need my job so I could buy a house of my own someday.

-o-o-O-o-o-

“Please don’t tell on me Helen,” I begged, “I need this job, and I’ll do anything. Anything you want, just please, don’t tell!”

“Alright,” Helen answered, “I want you to do my share of the work, and you better do it good too, or you’ll be out of a job faster than you can say ‘Deadbeat’.

-o-o-O-o-o-

I quickly agreed before she could change her mind and want my pay or something equally horrible. Day after day I ended up doing her share of the work and my own. The other girls began to get suspicious after they saw Helen taking a little nap and they see me working like a dog. Sweat would appear on my brow from intense concentration because I do want to do all the work perfectly.

There was this other girl, Jewel, and she offered me help from my situation. I turned her down at first though. She was 14 and pretty tall compared to all the other girls there. I was afraid that she was going to make me do her share of the work too.

Soon the days began to pass quickly and were always filled with hard labor. I was now used to that immense load but I knew that the time for me to break down was coming close. Everyday after work my ‘brother’ Joseph always asked me what was wrong and said that I didn’t look so good.

It was true. I looked horrible, but I didn’t want to worry him so I just said my employer, Mr. Kinnins, was pushing us a little too hard recently since it was time for a warmer season and more people would be out shopping.

He bought it.

I decided to give Jewel a try, she really didn’t so badly. Sure she wasn’t the oldest girl working on y floor, but she was older than Helen, which will give me an advantage.

-o-o-O-o-o-

“Uh, Jewel…remember that time when you asked me if I needed some help and I said ‘no’? I asked her. I really hope that she’ll help me now, especially after so rudely turning her down.

“Yeah,” she replied, “why, what’s wrong?”

“Well, you see. I lied during my interview and said that I was older than I really am, and this girl, Helen, found out about and threatened to tell if I didn’t do her share of the work. And this has been going for a while now.” I finished off saying with a sob choking my throat.

“I see,” she responded, “well, here’s what we’re going to do…” Jewel whispered in my ear.

“Wow! That’s a great plan!” I cried, happy that I finally was not going to be a ‘slave’ anymore.

-o-o-O-o-o-

Then we got right back to sowing. I did Helen’s work as usual along with my own. Helen usually fell asleep around this time, so the time for operation ‘Get Helen Fired’ had begun. Okay, what had Jewel said to do..? Ah yes, now I remember. So I picked up some of the more finer cloth and stuffed into one of the pockets in Helens dress and I also grabbed the readily made handkerchiefs and placed those on her hair, careful to not wake her up.

-o-o-O-o-o-

“Mr. Kinnins!” I screamed, “Helen is stealing cloth and the already made handkerchiefs. Plus she’s also sleeping on the job.” Little to say that Mr. Kinnins came running in.

“You girl, WAKE UP!” he yelled out, his little bawler hat going askew at the force of his voice.

“Wha-…what’s going on? What’s all the noise?” asked Helen, startled out of her nap.

“Young lady, you are fired!” Mr. Kinnins yelled out mercilessly and staring at Helen like something that belonged on the bottom of his shoe.

“What! No! I can’t get fired. I need this job, without it my mom would kill me! Please reconsider,” begged Helen, her voice coming out as a cross between a sob and a whisper. Security personnel soon showed up.

“It was all you, Annemarie, wasn’t it?! You’re the one who did this to me, aren’t you?!” Helen yelled out with tears gathering in her eyes as she was being dragged out of the building.

“Whoa, what was that about?” some random girl in the back just asked. No one answered, but they all stared at me.

“All right, nothing to see here ladies, all of you back to work now,” said Mr. Kinnins in a more jovial tone as he made his way out of the room.

‘That was easy’ I think to myself ‘but it was a bit hard to pull off. I do feel for Helen though, but at least she has parents and a home to go to. I don’t even have a home, or a real family. My only family is Joseph.

::Time Change-After Work::

“Hey! Annemarie, wait up!” called Jewel. “I guess the plan worked, huh?”

“Yeah it worked great, now I’ll have more twice more energy and maybe even money if I work two shifts. You know that they never close the factor, right?” I replied.

“Yes, that is fine and all, but I advise you not to. If you work two shifts you could easily fall asleep and get hurt or fired,” said Jewel.

“I see,” I said slowly “and I appreciate your concern and advice, but I’m going to follow my dream of owning a home one day and if I have to work two shifts then that’s what I’ll do.

“Suit yourself,” responded Jewel, knowing that she couldn’t change Annemarie’s mind, “Well, I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

“Yes, see you tomorrow. Good night!” I called back.

-o-o-O-o-o-

Working the night shift will be great. I’ll get twice the money and I’ll be able to carry out my plan. Sure it might have some flaws in it, but what doesn’t. It is simple yet brilliant. Every night the supervisor really doesn’t care what is going on, except fro making sure everyone is working. I’ll work like normally and when he passes by then I’ll swipe a couple of cloths and then use them at night. Next morning I’ll wake up real early and sell them on the street for some extra income. So, in other words, it’s like making triple the money, or something like it. I’ll have a brand new house in no time. The only thing that I’ll be missing out on is sleep, but I can’ let that get in the way of success.

A/N: This is the end of the first chapter of the ‘Child Labor Arc’, ending with Annemarie’s story. The next installment will be in a new story called “Helen” and it’ll be her story. Poems for the stories are also to come. Thanks for reading.

I did a few grammar and spelling checks now. Also this isn’t the whole story, so one the epilogue is written then I’d probably make more sense. Thanks to my reviewer, Taltush/MeiMei, I checked over this part of the story. I’m going to recheck and rewrite some other things before posting the next chapter, and maybe at a later date I’ll rewrite everything once I feel that I’ve grown as a writer. The first poem, “Ill-fated” will be up soon.