Chapter 96: The Final Snow Festival (2)
On the Snow Festival,
“A few years ago, I lost my parents. To a child who couldn’t sleep because of hunger, I told the lie, ‘Tomorrow will be a better day.’ Ten of us shared moldy bread and endured the winter with each other’s body heat.”
Eileen continued her speech in the square as countless people watched her.
“What terrified me most back then wasn’t hunger or poverty. It was the fact that I would have to keep lying to the children tomorrow.”
As Eileen spoke, the people recalled their impoverished pasts. Parents with children wiped tears from their eyes with the backs of their hands.
“What we needed more than anything was hope. The hope that tomorrow would be different, the certainty that one day, we’d laugh and talk about this as just a memory.”
Eileen remembered her time at the orphanage.
Without the anonymous donor, she might have given up entirely.
“And finally, winter passed, and spring came. The children no longer went hungry. They laughed and played in the yard. But one thing remained the same. I still told the children before bed: ‘Tomorrow will be a better day.’”