A Child Is Hungry and Confused

I came across this site the other day, and reading all of these stories from people like myself gave me hope. It makes me feel better to know that I'm not the only one out here who wants to change the suffering that we go through. After reading what other people had to say, I realized that I had to chip in too. I'm not as good with words as the others that I have read here, but I have a story that must be told.

I have two children. I'd rather not say any more about them than necessary, for their own protection. When I can, I grab little bits of text from my job to bring home and let them read. They're both quite curious, and are eager to learn. My little one's favorite sections in the paper are always the reader response sections; she loves to read the questions that the editors ask and the readers' responses. Of course, all of these responses are taken from Party members, so everything that she reads is glowing praise of our situation. After reading a few of them, she decided to send in her own response to the recent poll of food quality in the city. She saw that many people were very happy with the variety of foods available in the Zone, and was rather confused, since we rarely have enough to go around the table. When she was done writing it, she gave it to me to mail off. Of course, I could never do that, as it might endanger her, but I kept it as a reminder that my children deserve better than this. What follows are her own words, only modified to fix spelling or grammatical errors.

"Dear Reader's Response,

My name is (REMOVED), and I think that everybody that writes to you are either very confused or very skinny. When my mommy comes home from work, she usually only has a piece of bread and some butter. Mommy says that (REMOVED) (that's my brother) needs to eat a little bit more than we do, because he has to go work and that builds up an appetite. But when we're done, I'm still hungry, and I think Mommy is too. We're lucky, because Daddy gets to eat at his work, so he doesn't need to eat any of the food for dinner. But every time that he says that, Mommy looks at him like she's sad about something. I don't think that they're giving Daddy enough to eat at work, because he's getting skinnier too. If I were Daddy's boss, I would make sure that everybody that worked for me got enough to eat, and then could bring some home after too, in case their kids were hungry.

From,

Hungry Hungry Hippos"

A Cry For Help...From A Heart Underground

I work all day and I come home to these tunnels, so dark and damp. I wonder if I will ever have a better life.

My cot, it is more like my potato sack that I sleep on, is the only comfort I have. I often go hungry.

The weekly rations are hardly enough to keep me nourished. One meal a day if I want them to last a week.

If I have time when I come home, I imagine what it is like to live in the Towers like the Proscripts.

Is this life in the tunnels the only life I will ever have? I want to break free! I want to live like they do!

My children suffer, they go without a real education. We only teach them the skills to prepare them for work.

My children ask why they are forced to live here, and the only thing I can say to them is "such is the life of a Grotian."

They ask why they have empty bellies, and my wife and I weep. Our children starve and there is nothing we can do about it.

I am so lost as to where to go, who to turn to, I want my children to have a better life than I have now.

I hear tales of an L.W. who tries to help us, I can only pray he or she can really help us have a better life.

I hope my children have a better life someday...they do not deserve to suffer and be forced to work.