The Orphaned Child - By Shreeya Athanikar

It was a usual morning. Mom was in the kitchen and Dad was in his room, working on his laptop. I went down to play with my friends on the playground.

'Look!' Aisha pointed me to the window. 'Smoke is coming out of your house.' I saw smoke coming out of my apartment on the second floor. I rushed to the stairs only to find out that the second floor was full of a raging fire. I knelt on the stairs and almost burnt my knee skin. I stood up, tears in my eyes, and ran to take help from the others. My neighbor tried to pull out the fire extinguisher. But he was very weak to do it. Another person came forward. An aunty held me close to her. 'My Mom and Dad are inside,' I kept crying and she kept calling me. Some people were successful in putting out the fire with fire extinguishers. After some time, the fire got extinguished.

The people led me inside. I saw ashes everywhere and saw all the clothes burnt. Then I saw some familiar clothes. Mom and Dad's clothes. I lost everything that day.