The young girls eyes fluttered, then opened. At first glazed, they began to clear as she sat up and scanned the unfamiliar room. It was cool and dark, the only light seeped in around the edges of a heavy curtain that hung in the one large window, the white walls seemed to softly glow in the strange half-light. She looked down at herself and the bed she had woken in, it seemed a little like her old cot, only the bed was much longer and the sides were much lower. She lifted her hand to brush the dark, tangled hair from her eyes and was surprised to find her arm covered in scratches and partially bandaged, her entire body ached and she lay back and closed her eyes.
When she awoke again there was a young woman standing beside her bed, she was a tall woman with long blonde hair, her pale blue uniform accentuated her summery tan. The smiling stranger identified herself as nurse Emeline and asked her name. She sat silently, studying the nurses face, her large brown eyes peering up into nurse Emeline's kind blue ones.
"Are you hungry, sweetheart?" Emeline asked, pushing a tray toward her with one hand and removing the lid with the other. The food didn't look very good but it smelled nice and she was a little hungry. She pushed the peas around the plate with her fork for a minute before picking up a piece of bread and tearing a corner off to dip in the gravy that covered the small piece of unknown meat on the plate. She hesitantly raised the bread to her lips and looked up at the nurse whose eyes had not for a second left the small girls face. Smiling her kind smile, she gently nodded to the girl, encouraging her to try the food. Her tiny pink tongue poked partially out between her lips and tasted the tiniest bit of gravy before she daintily put the morsel into her mouth, she chewed and swallowed, the gravy tasted quite good... wonderful actually, and she realised that was not just a little hungry, she was, in fact, starving! She began by devouring the peas and mashed potato, then moved on to the meat and gravy, none of it was very warm but she really didn't care. Once the plate of food was empty she moved onto the small container of jelly and fruit that sat beside it, it was delicious, just like the ones she sometimes took to pre-school with her. She looked cautiously up at nurse Emeline, still standing beside the bed, hand folded in front of her, smiling down at the ravenous little girl. She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could a man enetered the room.