Five Dollars

A Snippet

Remy hurried down the street, he needed to find somewhere to shelter for the night. The darkness was coming in and he was already starting to feel the cold. He was a young boy, and had lost his parents to poison when he was only a year old, leaving him very much alone and having to make his own way in the world. He wasn’t a bad scavenger, so wasn’t usually short of food, but shelter was another matter. All the best spots were usually taken, and he had often had to fall asleep cowered against the wall, waking up shivering and soaked from rain the following morning. He had already scoured the west side of the town, and finding nothing, was forced into the enemy territory, of the upper east side. It was while he walked down one of the main shopping districts that he saw it. He couldn’t believe his luck. It wouldn’t provide
shelter from the rain, but there were ways around that, but the protection from the wind that it would provide would make the night far more bearable. Quickening his pace, he scurried over to it, picked it up, and made a dash for a back alley, where he would be safe from human eyes. Safely out of sight, he quickly went about making himself a shelter for the night. Folding the paper, so that the Lincoln memorial was on the outside of the shelter, he hoped no one would spot it until morning. Even in this privileged neighbourhood, it was unlike anyone to pass up any kind of currency, and small as it was, a five dollar bill could still carry some weight with some types. He snuggled down inside it, washed his whiskers, curled himself into a ball and fell into a deep sleep, thanking God that he had somewhere safe to sleep that night. Morning came quickly in the shopping district, as it always did. The staff were at
work by 5AM, busily preparing for the next day. The shop behind which, Remy had made his shelter was a restaurant named “The King Prawn”. It was a seedy little place, which served the best in all fried cuisine. Mona had worked there for five years now, ever since her family had spent every penny they had, to bring her over to America.