Emerald Pov

This unlucky day started for me like any other at 8:00 . Except that day before , due to the lack of opportunity to get good food , I was not able to eat nothing in the evening yesterday and in the morning today . Due to the lack of a working refrigerator I could not allow myself to have more food in stock because it would easily spoil thus attracting insects and rodents . So , hungry and sleep-deprived , because of the all-night noises by which I had to watch the house , I forced myself to dress to go out to get something to eat . After going out and securing the door of my house . As usual , early in the morning I walked through the city towards the commercial district .

Because of its proximity to my home and the density of stores there, it was the best place to get food . Of course, stores are not only located in the commercial district . On every street there are some kind of grocery store . The difference is that the commercial district, has many more different types of stores and service places from restaurants, nightclubs, bars, travel agencies, spas, hairdressers, pet stores, second-hand stores, stores with expensive brands, even casinos. 

Everything that can be related to services or goods exchanged for money , and can be at the same time very hard to find elsewhere in the city, is here practically next to each other . When someone want to do some decent shopping or go out to have fun in the city they come here . But when they need to do some quick shopping or they need single things and they don't want to waste time traversing the whole city . They can just buy the things they need in the stores on their street . This is how it works in Vale . 

And it is because of this accumulation of stores and services that I go right there to get food . Besides , the stores in the commercial district are not protected by gangs but by the police . Individual stores located on the streets where I live , are forced to pay a " fee " to the gang occupying the street . Which , despite the fact that it is forced , is was also very effective . I remember that the last thief caught in a store across from where I live , hung dead from one of the balconies . 

That's why I always preferred to walk to the commercial district , which was close enough to me anyway that it honestly didn't cause me much of a problem . Besides , even if I was not able to get food there , there were always wallets left . People in the place where I lived , had as empty wallets as I stomach . Besides , in their case , the slightest mistake or irregularity in my movements while rummaging through their pockets was quickly detected . 

And to this day I remember the beating I received when I was caught by them for the first time ........ such things quickly taught me about my mistakes .  Well , as far as such caution exists in people living near my street , the same could not be said of the snobs in the commercial district . Unless they carried credit cards , they always had some money in their wallets . Even if most of them had credit cards , they always carried some Lien in physical form . Which was quite common in the commercial district because of its purpose . It may not have been large sums of money but it was enough for something to eat . Besides , the sheer number of people there created a lot of easy opportunities . 

 In the end, within half an hour I was already able to walk to one of the many trading posts , where there were always many stands . The trading posts is in the shape of a square and it is surrounded by many buildings . Which were usually four or three-story residential and commercial buildings , as in most cases the upper floors were occupied by their owners, who ran their businesses on the lower floors. Something like a pawn store or clock store . 

The square shopping plaza , often called a market had many stalls inside, which were popular for the reason that everything there was much cheaper and more fresh than the same thing that could be found in the store. Unfortunately at the time of my arrival there were in the process of opening . I had already seen many skeletons of stalls , next to which stood people laying their goods out on them .

Due to the lack of open stalls , there was lack of goods to steal and crowds of people , in which I could blend in . I had to wait for opportunities . However , waiting did not bother me . It was warm for spring , so my new sweatshirt was doing very well . Besides , I was used to the cold . Due to the fact that I always changed the location of thefts to avoid being caught in the same place I was unfamiliar with this market , so with some free time I decided to look around for possible escape routes or police patrols . 

Of course I tried to do everything while being out of the way . While my clothes did not signal to anyone my need for help , being a lone child at such an early hour on the street was suspicious .Especially since most people in this type of plaza know each other . The presence of a lone and unfamiliar child , unaccompanied by a parent can be suspicious . The worst that could happen because of this , is someone calling the police to help me .

Unfortunately from my observations , the number of alleys here ware limited to just one for the entire market , most of the buildings here were built tightly against each other building a rather enclosed space . Sighing I could only give up the idea of an easy escape. The location of this place was inconvenient for optional escapes . My only luck was the lack of police activity in the area . 

I walked a few streets around the entire market just to be sure . For the entire hour only one police car drove by giving me the green sign to act . The police always choose the regions in which a particular patrol will maintain order . Determining the time is to see at what time and if at all a particular patrol bypasses the area . In my case they clearly did not look like they were going to get back here quickly .

When after another half an hour I did not find any police car I decided to go back to start getting food . Because frankly my hunger was already starting to bother me pretty badly at that point . But as if the world was making fun of my situation , the moment I returned to the market , dark clouds gathered over the city providing everyone with much needed rain . The rain that also yesterday thwarted my plans to get food . 

Because of the rain many people , unless they are forced to , will not go out to buy something today . More likely they will prefer to use the market or a neighborhood store because there the bad weather will not affect them as much . In my case, the lack of people deprives me of the opportunity to blend in with the crowd . Besides, most if not all the stalls , in the case of all-day rainfall will be closed again depriving me of the opportunity to get food from them .

This situation made me close to falling into desperation . I had to eat something because otherwise I would start losing calories and strength in my body , and being weakened my chances of getting food would drop even more . Not even mentioning the health problems that may occur because of it .

But because of this rain I really have no options , it directly destroys every tactic for getting free food that I have developed . I can't just run to one of the stalls and steal food from it without being noticed .In such a situation if I am noticed I won't be able to escape . My legs are too short and stamina is not enough to escape from an adult , they will catch me right away .

Besides , such an escape , even if successful , will exhaust me even more . Simply the calorie content of the food I get will not be worth the effort I put into getting it .That's why I've always needed clusters of people to divert the attention of the vendors from me and in the worst case , they would serve as a living obstacle course for the people pursuing me . My small body is much better for running between tightly packed people . It would simply be much easier for me to lose the chase in the crowd .

Of course, even this tactic carries the risk that a random passerby will catch me . But that will happen only if that person realizes that my little body slipped past him . But at that moment I had none of these options , I have no opportunity , and to make matters worse I began to lack energy , I was hungry and tired . Just being out in the cold rain was also risky and made me even more tired . 

The situation was bad . My only backup plan was a few Lien tucked deep in my house . It was not enough for a lot , but it was certainly enough for one of those good ready-made , pre-packaged tortillas that could always be bought in some grocery stores . Luckily the neighborhood store on my street had them on sale . They were filling and more importantly the guy running the store always heated them up for me . 

The reason I didn't buy this tortillas yesterday , was that I really don't like to spend money when there is no need , I prefer to save it . Unfortunately , whenever I save some Lien , suddenly a situation like this happens , forcing me to shop . However, at the same time a situation like this showed that it is worth saving .

Well I'd rather spend the money than torment myself with hunger . The only thing that comforted me was the thought of a warm tortilla , which would be my only meal for the rest of the day . As for the store itself , the fortunate thing is that despite the fact that I did not often use it , I know the owner . That's why I know that he will not call the police after seeing me . Which could and did happen early on in other stores . 

Sighing in defeat , increasingly wet due to the increasing rain I walked back towards home . Unfortunately even the way back was not without confusion . On the way I began to hear a lot of sirens , but being sure that they are not directed at me I did not pay attention to them . However, if I had done so I would have realized that they were heading in the same direction as me .

It was not until I was less than two streets away from home that I realized that all the commotion I had ignored earlier was happening on the street where I lived. With some anxiety I quickened my pace of movement to see the situation . At the intersection leading to my street , despite the rain , I could already see a small crowd of people and to my growing anxiety they were looking towards the street where my house was located . Being at the intersection , I stood next to the grouped people and looked where they were looking . Unfortunately the sight that greeted me made me freeze in place .

My house ....... The whole building disappeared ....... Not only that , two buildings adjacent to mine have also disappeared . All that was left of them was rubble , now surrounded by law enforcement . I saw police securing the area while in the meantime medics and firefighters were digging people out of the rubble . With an empty mind I heard people next to me whispering about the probable causes of this or what they saw when the collapse occurred .

However, I , looking at the rubble of my home could not assimilate the fact that I had lost my safe shelter , lost my clothes , my saved money , my mom's heirlooms ..... I lost my home , no matter how many bad memories I had with it it was my home . Perhaps my things were under the rubble , however what was the chance of finding them ? Is it even worth looking for them? What am I supposed to do now ? Perhaps I will spend the night with someone ? Maybe this nice old lady will take me in ...... No , the building where she lives has also collapsed . Is she alive at all ?

To this day I remember my horror caused by the awareness of the measure of things I lost then . What woke me up then was a fire truck passing by me . As if it didn't have enough misfortune that day , passing by me it doused me with water from a forming puddle . This cold water made me realize that no matter how well I did se alone or how good a talent for theft I would have ........ Just one unfortunate day , a simple probability equation whose outcome is not in my favor , can nullify any talent or plan .

Luck is the most important currency in life . Looking at it from the perspective of the present me , that unlucky day had at least good consequences in it . In the end I survived , I did not die under the rubble's of my old home . Living without a safe home taught me about the difficulties of survival in life , this made me strong . And , I the end , that bad day led me to place where I meet my new family . To the place where I met her .......