Lonely Orphan | Teen Ink

Lonely Orphan

October 30, 2014
Shruthi Radhakrishnan BRONZE, Princeton,
3 articles 0 photos 0 comments


One day, I was walking down the filthy streets very slowly as an injured turtle. The stench in the air had damaged my sense of smell and brought tears to my tired and swollen eyes. As I was walking, loud weeps roamed around the streets and worsened the depression that was preserved in my heart. Hello, my name is John and I am a lonely orphan.
Two days ago, I was a happy and leaping young boy. But, the malevolent plague began to knock on our doors. Unfortunately, this plague was spreading very rapidly, so it had killed thousands of people as if there was an abhorrent revolution occurring in London. Death was quickly approaching and smuggled my parents away from me. I watched my parents succumb to death, and fall beside feet. I was disheartened and fell to the ground with awe. Immediately, I had clasped my parents in my arms, and hoped to prevent death from dragging my parents away from me. I had screamed and bawled very loudly that even Queen Elizabeth would have heard me. But, I didn’t care about royalty, because I had lost my family and my entire life when I saw death gobble my parents right in front of my eyes.  
After those somber days, I transformed into a dark and evil little child.  When I saw happy families, envy was obscuring my big blue eyes and filled my body with resentment. I had hoped that someday I might have a family that would love me more than anyone in this world.  But, a person can only dream for this to happen. Not only was I left alone by my parents, but I was also throbbing with starvation. I had the appetite equivalent to a large Siberian tiger. I did not worry about sanitation because, I desperately needed food, and I was prepared to eat anything that is lingering on the streets. Unfortunately, I found nothing but an old dead body collector with a broken wheelbarrow. His face reminded me of the wrinkles that were found on my dad’s formal shirts. As I stepped closer to the man, a putrefying smell was approaching towards my nostrils. That was when I noticed that the man had not bathed for a very long time. I greeted him, and asked him if he wanted company. His words were comforting as a warm blanket, and those words had maneuvered me towards him. I shared my unpredictable past, and he disregarded it and continued to pick up piles of dead bodies off the ground. As a turned around to walk away, a hand had grabbed onto my frail arm. When I looked back in astonishment, I saw that it was the dead body collector. Suddenly, his grip began to get stronger, that the blood that was flowing in my arm began to bulge up to the surface of my skin. I shrieked and attempted to detach his grip from my arm but I failed at it. That was when I realized that he required me to work with him. At first, I ignored his requirement because I dreamt of pursuing a good education. But, because I was a poor and lonely orphan, I have no support for my educational career. Within a few days, I began to work for the old man. That was when I began to understand the horrifying terrors of his brutal job. 
I had worked as his apprentice for 2 weeks and within those weeks I had gathered over 10,000 dead people. The people were covered with big black buboes, and were very pale. In addition to that, some old women had infected and swelled groins and armpits. I knew that this job was painful as if a mosquito had pricked my skin and drained out my blood. I began to fall very easily onto the dirty and rocky streets, and it took me several days to recuperate back to my original condition. In addition to that, I had completely lost my sense of smell because my nose became numb after several deteriorating smells entered my nasal regions. But, I was forced to work, because it was a life or death situation since my parents abandoned me after they died. Soon, the old man contracted malaria, and chickenpox from the nearby crowded apartments. It was very easy, to contract diseases because the apartments were very smelly, and were filled with humidity.  After 3 days, the old man had died, and I began to linger on the streets, because my legs seemed to have been cuffed to a metal cube that was difficult to pull. Within a matter of weeks, I became dehydrated and I received several new black buboes. It was a sign of the plague, and I started to feel happy, because I can finally reach my parents. One day, when I was lifting a dead corpse I fell to my knees and broke my knee caps. Eventually, my head reached the large bumpy roads and began to bleed as a red waterfall. I slowly lost my conscious, and I began to hallucinate. I saw several horrifying pictures of the deaths that I had encountered in my lifetime. But, the only feeling of happiness was that I am going to go to my parents and have a peaceful time in life. As long as I reach my parents, my soul would be happy forever.



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