Before she was born, set up to fail,

Her life caged up, living in a jail,

Being able to find happiness was the holy grail,

All of her efforts were to no avail.

All the streets of New York heard the cries of a baby on a cold October night. One New Yorker got tired of the baby, he tiredly went down the stairs of his rotting apartment building to find what -or who was keeping him up. He walks closer to the irritating commotion. He turns the corner to reveal what he thought was an empty alleyway. In the distance, he sees a car seat on the cold ground. The car seat reveals a small, pale baby loosely swaddled in a hospital blanket accompanied with a pink teddy bear and a hospital bracelet on her wrist.

Mahi, Kaivalya (Ky-val-li-a)

DR. RYAN WILLIAMS

DOB: 10/21/XX

AGE: 2D SEX: F

PT#: 358549

The groggy man glanced at the baby with tired eyes. Her alluring grey eyes clouded by tears were enough to disregard his earlier thoughts. He slowly picked up the crying baby, cradling her in his arms. The warm embrace calms Kaivalya, stopping her from wailing.

"Hey, angel." He cooed at her, he heard a small noise from the baby in response. Warmth immediately filled his cold heart. He didn't know what to do with the child.

'Maybe I could take her to the police station?' He thought.

He looked in the car seat again and discovered a note.

Dear reader,

If you are reading this note, you most likely found Kaivalya Mahi. I am her father but I am unable to take care of her, her mother died and I had no other choice. Please take care of her. If you are unable to take care of her, please send her to a loving home. By the time you're reading this I will be dead. Take care.

Sincerely,

A

Take care?

The messy note enraged the man, how could someone leave their child in the streets of New York? He decided to take the child to the police station, he didn't have the time or resources to take care of a baby, he barely had enough to support himself let alone a child he just found.

He stared at the beautiful baby, admiring her adorable face. Her chubby cheeks were red due to the cold atmosphere and grey eyes staring into his soul. His heart broke at the fact he would have to give the child up, but what other choice did he have?

Weeks passed and the man couldn't stop thinking about the little girl he found in the abandoned alleyway. He gave the girl to the authorities but they couldn't find any living relatives, so they sent her to 'Sunny Fields Orphanage'. He just recently got a better job as a local fireman. He started to produce more income and the more he made, the more he thought about the infant in the orphanage. He was doing it all for her.

He couldn't take it anymore, he needed to ensure the child was safe and the only way he could do that was taking care of her himself.

"You have to sign here and you're good to go." The nice lady behind the desk told the man. He wrote his signature on the final piece of paper with no hesitation. He had been saving his paychecks for months to be able to support the child with the help of siblings. It was a bit of a stretch but he knew it would be worth it.

A middle aged woman came around the corner carrying a 4-month old on her hip. Her dark brown hair was a little longer since the last time he saw her but her cheeks were just as chubby and her eyes were just as captivating.

This immediately brought a smile to the man's face. Of course he wanted Kaivalya to be adopted by a loving, financially stable family but he secretly didn't want her to get adopted because he wanted to do it himself. It was selfish for him to think like that but he knew she was very important to him. He wanted to make sure nothing would happen to her.

____________________________________________________

What do you think?

Solitaire is a short story that is about eleven year old Kaivalya.

Alone is all Kaivalya has felt since she was little, bouncing around foster homes since she was a small child after the tragic death of her only father figure. Now the eleven-year old resides on the streets, living off of any scraps she finds. She thought she would always be alone until she met André Monet, a famous CEO who sees a small child on the street with nothing but a deck of cards and a stuffed bear. He starts to form a bond with the sassy girl on the street corner. Will the lonely man be there for the cold girl or will she always live in solitaire?