"Your mother she didn't care for you at all?" Anna asked.
"No, I cared for her instead. I stole food and picked pockets and whatever else I had to do to survive. A lot of times we ate other people's garbage. At times, especially in the winter rats and mice can become a delicacy let me tell you.
I managed to get a small job cleaning up at a chess club that paid enough to get some better food for a while."
"How old were you?"
"About eight I think." I said in response.
"What happened to your mother?"
"She was doing sexual favors one night in order to get the money for a fix and I guess she didn't do the job well enough or she asked too much money for it and the guy slapped her so hard he broke her neck."
Anna cringed against me and I felt her tears on my skin, "Then what did you do Tyre?"
"The authorities got a hold of me and threw me into an orphanage, which was essentially a sweatshop. I was there till I was 11, when a rich American couple adopted me."
"Did things get better then?" Anna asked hopefully.
"The food did, but nothing else. They were rich New York socialites. The wife had lost a bet with another couple and the conditions of the bet had been that the loser had to adopt a Russian orphan."
"That's terrible!" Anna exclaimed.
"Actually it wouldn't have been that bad, if her husband hadn't had a fondness for boys."
Anna's head came up off my shoulder and I could see the look of outrage on her face in the semi light of the moon reflecting off the snow outside.
"He molested you?" She cried out in anger.
"Molest would be a small word for it." I said before looking away.
Her hand brought my face back around, "Oh honey!" She whispered out before hugging me hard as her tears pressed into my skin.
I relished her comfort, but I knew she might not give it so freely after she heard all of it. I started to speak, but her fingers closed over my mouth. "Tyre you don't have to go on! I understand if you don't want to talk about this stuff!"
I kissed her fingers, but pulled them away, "You need to hear all of it Anna."
She looked uncertain but said, "Okay."
I started back into the story, "The authorities found out about my adopted fathers activities with me from a maid, who felt sorry for me. They shipped him off to jail and the inmates made short work of him within a couple months, when they found out what he was there for.