The East End

I was born on the east end of the district. It’s the side where only the people that were born there live, most of them longing to be free from the decrepit buildings and tight quarters, I being one of them. I’ve always dreamt of a way out of this place. Money keeps me hostage. No one wants to hire a low-life from the east end and the ones that have to give you wages that a hermit couldn’t live on. Many people in the east end have two or three jobs and are barely making ends meat. No one in the east end could even attempt a move to a better part of the district. The prices are too high. I have never in my life owned a new pair of shoes. Once, a girl named Patricia got a new ribbon for her birthday. She wore it to school and everyone stopped and stared as she passed by in the hall. It was a brilliant red with a gold fringe at the end. It was “lost” by the end of the day. But that was years ago.

Most of us east enders leave school after third grade and go to work in the big textile factories, as shoe shiners, or anything we can scrounge up. I bet someone would sweep the sullied streets if they could get paid for it but no one cares enough about us to clean the streets. I know a few girls that were in my grade that had to resort to prostitution. That might just be the worst job or them all. The Cattle Driver comes through every so often and picks up the young girls who don’t have work. We’re all desperate. It’s survival of the fittest down here.

Reiny, my brother, and I have lived in Rat Kingdom ever since our mother passed away when I was ten. If you go down Grouse Street you’ll see many alleyways that end in large sewer drains. Connected to the sewer system is the Underground. The Underground was a subway system that went throughout Orion. From what I’ve heard, it was an industrial marvel. When I was three, the Underground was shut down due to lack of funds and the “unimportance” of many of the places it went, said the mayor. 

Because many people in the east end could not afford to live in the tenements, they went underground. A city was build in the Underground and dubbed “Rat Kingdom”. Many black market dealings go on in Rat Kingdom and it has much worse living conditions than above ground but at least it doesn’t cost us anything to live there. Many an orphan can be found in Rat Kingdom along with failed businessmen and large families who can’t support themselves. These people aren’t as bad as you might think. Many are actually the nicest people you could meet in all of Orion, they’ve just been given a bad hand. If you’re having a particularly hard time, they’ll part with a pouch of uri seeds so you can trade for a small bowl of broth or maybe a pidgeon breast. That pouch might have given them the means to make uri bread to sell in the market or feed to their own starving children. Francesca has done this for me on many occasions. She has two darling children of her own, Marcie and Bradford. They are so sweet. Francesca is an amazing mother.

To be continued...