Thelma the Brave

Once upon a time there was a girl named Thelma. She was very unhappy. Her father was a farmer and her mother slept all day so Thelma had to do all of her chores. It was not a fun life. More often than not, Thelma, her seven brothers, her weentsy inteseey little sister, her father and her mother only had fruit to eat with the occasional veggie or dead rat thrown in. They had to make do.

One day, Thelma woke up in a horrible mood. Her head was aching and her back was sore. Her eyes seemed to droop and her legs felt almost numb. She was sick and tired of all this hard work! She was only six years old, for heavens sake, she shouldn't be doing the work of a grown woman for such a huge family. It was not fair! Tears started to stream down Thelma's cheeks. No! She was not going to cry and wallow in her own self pity! Thelma smiled. That was a good one! She walked over to her bare desk and selected a worn sheet of paper to quickly write it down before she forgot it. That phrase would go really well in one of her poems. She wiped her face on the edge of her worn and too small skirt she moseyed to the kitchen to start breakfast before any of her family woke up. (And when they did that, they were always hungry.)

After Thelma had made breakfast, she felt a little better. Then her little bitty sister Alice cried. No, more like she screamed. Thelma ran as fast as she could to her parent's room so that she could calm Alice before she woke them up. Alice had always loved the kitchen, so that is where Thelma brought her, knowing that Alice would busy herself with the spices while she ate her breakfast. After Thelma finished her breakfast, she was so exhausted that she laid her head on the worn wooden table and quickly fell asleep to Alice's indistinct mumblings.

Thelma jolted awake. The house and kitchen were completely silent. Thelma jumped up and ran to her parents room. They were gone. To her brothers'. They were gone too. Her whole family had suddenly disappeared! Thelma was all alone.


.....Make up the rest for yourself.....