My Way To You 378 Loralei Part 1

'It happened so long ago yet I remember it like it was yesterday.' Loralei started. Ariana nodded her head in uindersatnding while she stared at Loralei. Wondering if she was going to go against her words and stop telling her story before she started. Loralei struggled with what she wanted to say. Her body trembled and she looked at Ariana with pleading eyes. Ariana stayed silent causing Loralei to let out a heavy sigh.

'My realy name is April Stand and my mother should have been the winner of the baby contest back in 1930....'

.....

"What do you mean my triplets are disqualified?!" An overly exhausted looking women dressed in a linen yellow dress shouted at a newspaper reporter. "I'm sorry Mrs. Stand but you don't have the triplets birth certificates and there is no way to prove that your boys were born within the specified time line." A greesy looking man said as he wiped the sweat from his receding hair line head.

"Of course my boys were born in the specified time line! They are my first born! Look at them! They aren't even teenagers! They are 9 years old." Mrs. Stand shouted as her army of children stood behind her. In the middle of the group a six year old girl stood. She was dirty despite her clean dress, her messy, blond hair was tied back as her blue eyes silently watched the two adults fight back and forth.

"Mrs. Stand I understand but we have already published the winner. She has even collected her prize. There is nothing for you here and I can't help you." The reporter said as he tried to take a step back but Mrs. Stand was not backing down. She took a step forward and shoved her index finger ino his scrawny body. "Yes, yes your beloved winner but I also have 12 birth certificates so how is it that we didn't even tie?! The money could have been split but instead you selected your winner with heavy bias!" She shouted.

"Mrs. Stand, you are not the only one who has 12 birth certificates. We were told that Mrs. Quinn won because her 12 children were born first. So for all fairness," The reporter tried to explain but Mrs. Stand pushed the reporter down. "So you're saying that because she popped her kids out what a month? Maybe weeks earlier then the rest of us she auomatically wins! This is ludicrous." Mrs. Stand shouted as she towered over the reporter.

Suddenly other reporters came to the greasy reporter's aid. "Let go of me!" Mrs. Stand shouted. The greasy reporter got off the ground and dusted himself off as he smiled. "Mrs. Stand this world is not always fair. You joined a contest that the whole country entered. You losing is completely your own fault for not getting pregnant fast enough." He said as he gave Mrs. Stand a cold glare.

"Then tell me how am I supposed to feed all these kids?!" Mrs. Stand shouted as she struggled against the men holding her back. "Not my problem. That's a woman's job to figure out but let me give you some friendly advice. Sell your brats. I know I couldn't stand having so many mouths to feed in my home." The reporter said then nodded at the other reporters.

"You!" Mrs. Stand hissed as she was dragged out of the office. "Enough wih your antics or we will publish an interesting article about you and your family." The reporter said after he and his friend tossed out Mrs. Stand onto the street. "Mom?" One of the older boy's called out as he held out his hand. "Yes darling." Mrs. Stand said as she got up. "We should go home....."

...

"So what made your mom break down and do... do that thing?" Ariana asked as she watched Loralei closely. 'When we got home and she told my dad what happened he flipped. We were living in a small house with a modest income coming in. My dad said that the reporter was right, that they had to sell us off to recupe some of their losses." Loralei explained. "That's awful." Ariana gasped.

'But my mom was firm about not selling us. She made the older siblings go find jobs and she picked up two jobs herself. She started sewing in a factory while my dad was at work and at night after we went to bed my mom would go clean bathrooms. She probabaly slept four hours every night. So I stayed home and took care of the younger ones and the house. We were doing fine for a bit but then we entered into the great depression.'

'Dad lost his job, my brothers were being beat up and my two older sisters were almost abducted by human traffickers. My mom still had her jobs but my dad started drinking as debt kept piling up. They always said it was because the stock market crashed but it wasn't true. Only a small percentage of the people were affected by the stock market the rest of the poplulation had no affiliation to the stock market but our pesident didn't want to admit that he was wrong with his American dream idea.'

'People were freaking out that the stock market cras.h.i.+ng just because they were told it was the end of the economy. So people started to pull out all their money from the banks making them go belly up when they had no money to give. Others didn't realize that cedit was supposed to be paid back and with no regulations on how much people could take out, people were drowning in more debt then they could ever pay. People started committing suicide and allowing the debt to be pa.s.sed over to their families.'

"Loralei..." Ariana called out pitifully. 'We lasted two years as a family but my mom was backed into a corner. We were about to lose the hose and she didn't want to see us become homeless. So she sold my older sister, the last set of twins and last set of triplets. She tried her best to not cry but I saw her late at night crying by herself.'

'We kept our house, my dad still drank and some of my siblings started stealing so we could suvive. 85% of my mom's paychecks went to paying our debt while the last of it went to my dad. My oldest brother and sister couldn't take it anymore and stole money from my dad when ever he pa.s.sed out so we could get fresher food and some school supplies. I wasn't allowed to go to school because I took care of the house but they did their best to teach me.'

'Years went by and then the war started.'