“Well” she thought “If they are stupid enough to leave the window open why shouldn’t I go in and have a look round?”
Goldie checked to see if anyone was looking before climbing in through the window. She landed in the kitchen, which was small but clean there didn’t seem to be much food about but in the fridge she found three tubs of fruit. Being a greedy girl she opened the largest first and took a large spoonful, she spat it out straight away.
“Yuk, I hate cheap apples” she cried.
She threw the tub on the kitchen side and picked up the second medium sized tub; grabbing the spoon she greedily stuffed another huge mouthful. Once again she spat the contents onto the floor.
“Damn this lot must be poor” she wailed.
Next she took the smallest tub and saw that it was full of grapes, which she actually liked, so she ate it all throwing the empty tub onto the kitchen side.
She walked through to the living room and turned on the television, she plonked herself down into the smallest chair and the leg buckled and it broke to pieces.
“Stupid chair!” she grumbled “don’t people know not to buy such rubbish?”
She moved onto the medium sized chair, as she sat back she sunk to the floor, it was so old and well used.
“That is so uncomfortable” She thought and shook her head and moved into the biggest chair in the room. She stood up quickly as she found it even more uncomfortable than the second chair. Goldie was used to having what she wanted when she wanted it, once she realised the owners didn’t even have cable TV she decided to go upstairs, after kicking the TV off of its stand, and lay down. Her parent’s always wanted her to do things so she relished the idea of sleeping when she wasn’t supposed to be. After trying all three of the beds upstairs she chose the smallest as it had the softest cover, she curled up and fell fast asleep.
The house she had broken into belonged to a single parent family that went by the name of Bear. Mrs Bear was a good mother and a hardworking lady but didn’t have much. She had been at work that day and her two children had been with a babysitter close by. When they returned that evening Mrs Bear was horrified to find their food for the evening spread all over the floor. It was her payday the next day and she had nothing else to give her children. As they moved through the house they noticed the broken chair, the youngest child cried as she saw it, it had been her favourite. Mrs Bear ran up the stairs to check the bedrooms, Goldie heard the first door creak and jumped up climbed out of the window and ran all the way home. Andy the oldest of the Bear children had seen her through the window as she ran, he knew he would recognise her again.
When Goldie got home her mother was really upset, the dance school had called to check if Goldie was going to be well enough for the show the following week. Goldie tried in vain to lie her way out of the situation, but Mrs Bear realised she had lied. Goldie’s punishment was to spend the next day collecting old clothes from her neighbours for a jumble sale in aid of the local hospice. Of course Goldie was not going to do such a menial thing so once again she paid someone else to do it. She sauntered of to the shopping centre and walked around the shops for the afternoon. Andy spotted her slipping a lipstick into her pocket in the local Boots store, the store detectives had failed to notice again! Goldie was an accomplished thief, she prided herself in never being caught. As she walked from the shop she felt a hand on her shoulder, she froze. She turned and saw Andy and laughed to herself.
“You were in my house yesterday, you took our food and broke our things!” said Andy. Goldie immediately burst into tears and told him a long story, explaining that her parents had died and she had been sent to a foster home which she had run away from because they had been nasty to her. Being a kind hearted boy he invited Goldie back to his house. When they got there he explained the story to his mother. Mrs Bear was angry with Goldie at first and gave her a good talking to about respect for others and their belongings. Goldie wept and apologised wholeheartedly begging for forgiveness and a chance to put right what she had done. Mrs Bear was a kind hearted soul and she took pity on Goldie telling her she was welcome to stay with them for a while and that she would help her to sort out her problems. Goldie accepted her offer as she really didn’t know how else she would get out of it all!
Goldie’s parents were mad with worry when she didn’t return home that evening and called the police.
As Goldie had broken the TV at the Bear’s house they didn’t hear the news for a few days. During those days Goldie lived with the family, they cared for her totally. She was humbled by the way they lived their lives, and grew to care about them very much. She even enjoyed helping with cleaning the house and making the dinner. The Bear children introduced Goldie to the joys of make believe and storytelling. Goldie learned a lot about life in a very short period, although she missed her own parents and bedroom she was enjoying her life with the Bear’s. After Goldie and the Bear children had gone to bed on Tuesday evening there was a knock on the door. Mrs Bear opened the door and was shocked to see a policeman in front of her. The policeman explained they were looking for a little girl, and proceeded to give Mrs Bear a description of her. Mrs Bear paled as she realised they were talking about Goldie; she was very upset to hear the real story and rushed to fetch her from her bed and hand her over to the police.
Goldie cried as she was put into the police car, she realised how much trouble she could be in. As the car pulled away from the house she looked back at the bear family and saw how upset they looked. On the way to the police station she busily made up a story to tell the police. She decided she would be in less trouble if she told them the Bear family had kidnapped her and kept her there and were preparing to ransom her as they were so poor.
Goldie’s parents were there at the station when she arrived there they looked distraught, she noticed her mother looked like she hadn’t slept and her father had obviously been crying as his eyes were all red and puffy. The officer turned to Goldie and asked what had happened; she prepared to tell them the kidnap story. As she started to speak she remembered the look in Mrs Bear’s eyes as they drove from the house, and all of the things she had experienced with them.
“I … I … “, she stammered, “I ran away because I was as nasty person, I lied, I stole and broke things”
Goldie then went on to tell the truth for the first time in her life, it felt good. In those few days with the Bear family she had learned so many lessons in life and realised how truly horrible she was.
Her parents took her home and apologised to the Bear family, offering Mrs Bear a job with Mrs Locke’s charity. Goldie vowed never to tell a lie again and to think of others before herself. She turned into a very good person married Andy Bear and they all lived happily ever after!
