A picture is worth more than a thousand words: Sylvie's Eiffel encounter

"This system sucks" she said as she ran to catch the last train going to Paris. She was just eleven and alone, had been in the orphanage since she was a toddler and had been refused by many families that came around for adoption.

Her pretty blue eyes moistened as she found a comfortable place to squeeze herself in while the old train ran down its track as fast as its old bogies took it.

"Goodbye orphanage" she stretched and yawned as her eyelids closed.

"Hey you, what are you doing here?" came a squeaky voice from an old man who has off-loaded cargos from trains for decades and it can be seen from the shape of his muscles. She yawned as she opened her eyes and everywhere was lit with bright sunlight, filled with people scurrying around most of them in bright nice fabrics and some in washed old fabrics. Turning her gaze back to the fierce looking angry muscled man in front of her, she trembled and sweat in her palms.

Without further questioning, he picked her out of the train and dropped her hard on the ground. "Shoo away! Stray kid" he barked and Sylvie scrambled away almost bumping into an old lady with a basket of fruits on her head.

"Oh, I'm so sorry" she pleaded and ran away as fast as her little legs could take her. When she was in a better place where there were few people who minded their business, she slowed her pace and admired the city but first things first, she had to find a place to sleep. As she walked on looking around for shelter, thick clouds formed in the sky causing her to hasten her steps again because it looked like there was going to be a heavy downpour.

Her stomach growled loudly and she pressed hard on it with her hands asking it to hush when suddenly she discovered she was between some huge iron pillars.

Sylvie was struck at how huge the pillar was and how well it was constructed. She stepped out of where she stood in the middle and looked up to have a better view of the structure she had walked into. To her greatest surprise, she was standing really close to the most beautiful thing in the world; "The Eiffel tower of Paris".

With her mouth wide open, she captured the image of the beautiful tower with her amazing blue eyes and couldn't just close them, her stomach was no longer growling as something bigger was in front of them. Slyvie stood there for a while looking on and smiling when someone nudged her.

"You love the tower huh?" A boy her age, not properly dressed, asked her. He had a loaf of bread held tight under his armpit and some fresh tomato in his hands. He was munching the bread when Sylvie looked at him and then at the bread.

"Have some," he said, stretching the bread out to her. Sylvie smiled and took a large amount and stuffed it in her mouth.

"Let's go sit somewhere before the rain comes down" he smiled and held her hand. They walked away chatting and smiling like two adults but Sylvie kept looking back at the beautiful tower.

"Forever in my heart" she murmured and moved on quickly with her newly found friend.

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