”It had all been an accident. Those happen. Coincidence. Coincidence that she had just so happened to find that little jewelry box in the boys’ closet. She owed her fate-encounter to being asked to collect all the other orphans’ laundry. How strange that not doing such a dreary request would have stopped Marla from completely changing her life.”

“But suddenly Marla was pulled back to reality as she felt something tug at her mind through tugging at her paper.”

”Javis looked as though he wanted to bite his silver-tongue for what he just said. He wasn’t used to addressing children and realized how inappropriate the comment could seem for a “grown man” to say to a young girl in a nightgown.”

“Marla watched the longhaired brunette disappear from view, down the hall. Everything was getting so blurry and she was feeling overheated and stressed. Feeling no control over her body, Marla was overcome with darkness and passed out.”

“Funny that Javis should mention that because Marla could feel her heart cracking, quite literally. The more Javis talked, the more pain Marla felt in her chest.”

“Marla giggled at the very unfitting nickname. There was no way that a man who towered over most like he did, could be called something that insinuated he was tiny. Maybe that was the joke behind his name. But his real name disappointed her. It was so plain and normal, she knew several John’s, and it greatly disappointed her because he looked too eccentric for such a simple name.”

“She told herself that if she was brave enough to put this dress on, then she’d be brave enough to go back to Utridesma.”