Lilly sprinted across the road.
Honk—
A car zoomed past, knocking her off balance. She fell, scraping her arm on the pavement, blood seeping out instantly.
She ignored the chauffeur's puzzled gaze or the curious pedestrians asking, "Whose child is that?"
Although she didn't recognize the route from school to the Hatcher family's house, an inexplicable sense of conviction guided her through unfamiliar intersections and narrow alleys until she arrived at the residential area.
At that moment, Lilly sensed that her determination might solve some problems.
At last, she stood before the Hatcher family's home.
The house had been sealed off, which was later auctioned in a legal sale and bought by another household.
The woods behind the house weren't originally the Hatcher family's, but they had opened a gap in the fence, treating the woods as their secret personal backyard when they lived there.
The quickest route to the woods was passing through the house.
Lilly was familiar with the path as she squeezed through a gap. Although she heard a reproachful voice from above, she disregarded everything as she had only one thought. Find Polly!
The woods remained the same, exactly as she remembered.
"Polly!" Lilly called out in a trembling voice.
She called for a long time without any response. Only the approaching voices of people talking in the distance echoed.
"Whose kid is that? Why is she just barging into someone else's house like that? If something happens to her, we won't be able to explain it."
Lilly glanced back and stumbled deeper into the woods.
The prickly shrubs scratched her face, leaving several red marks, but she paid them no mind.
Suddenly, she felt that, at this moment, Polly was her only hope in this whole world. If she couldn't find it…
"Polly…" Lilly's eyes welled up with tears, but she held them back and called, "Polly, it's Lilly. Please come out..."
The surroundings were eerily quiet, interrupted only by distant curses from people searching for her.
Tears streamed down Lilly's cheeks.
Suddenly, she thought of a possibility. Polly might be gone because it had died over the winter.
That would be logical. However, if so, what should she do next?
Finally, just as despair set in, the sound of flapping wings echoed, and Polly squawked. "Lilly!"
Lilly was immediately overjoyed. "Polly!"
The emerald parrot landed on her shoulder. Before Lilly could get a good look at it, she was caught by the people behind her.
Polly flapped its wings and shouted, "Squawk! Kidnappers! Kidnappers!"
The adult was somewhat irritated. "Whose child are you? How can you just barge into someone else's house?"
Lilly's lips quivered. "I…"
She was nobody's child. She didn't have a home.
She didn't want to mention the orphanage, nor did she want to go back there.
"I just came to find my friend Polly," Lilly earnestly explained, "Now that I've found her, I'll leave right away."
After saying that, she broke free from the person's grip, picked up Polly, and ran toward the exit.
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