Finding Stardust

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Emma Stardust only shot a quick glance at the building in front for a moment before getting inside the car that would take her to her new home. For almost a dozen years, she lived in the orphanage as a child of the state, and she had no pleasant memories there.

Mabel, the matron, always called her a little monster. Emma couldn"t remember exactly when was the first time that bitter middle-aged woman began to look at her with fear and disgust. Mabel tried several times to move Emma to another facility. Still, her requests were always rejected because the people in the Child Welfare Agency could not accept the reasons she put forward - that she was naughty, mentally ill, wanted to harm the other children, etc.

Emma was used to shutting herself off from others. She didn"t care if she had no one she could call a friend. At present, she just wanted to get out of the system as soon as possible and become an adult who could decide the direction of her own life.

Emma was not a native Singaporean. According to doc.u.ments that she found, she was born in France and entered the child protection system there. However, the French government was already feeling too much burden, more than what it could handle. Some children who came to the system were transferred to other developed countries that were willing to take them under their wings.

Singapore and j.a.pan were the two countries that willingly opened their doors to unwanted children from mainland Europe, according to the UNCPP Treaty, among the Top 20 economies.

Both countries experienced a population crisis due to low birth rates. Now, most of their citizens were old, while very few babies were born to be the next generation. Over the past few years, as previously predicted, j.a.pan and Singapore had begun to experience challenges in finding a productive workforce.

By accepting unwanted children into their country, to become their citizens, this population crisis could hopefully be reduced. Singapore did not just take prospective new citizens freely. Since they adopted a meritocracy system, they set a strict screening system, so only quality seeds would enter their country.

Emma was part of those quality seeds. When she was younger, her IQ Test showed that her level of intelligence was above Einstein"s. She also showed characteristics similar to Einstein when he was at her age.

Emma"s mind flew to a distant past when she was still in an orphanage in France, eleven years ago. She was still five years old when the a.s.sessment team came to visit her in France. Emma had never talked prior to that day and everyone thought she was a mute. She only uttered one sentence when the a.s.sessment team members wanted to leave the room and crossed her name off the candidate list.
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"Cocaine, not heroin," said little Emma in a lazy tone. She sat in her chair wearing her best clothes for the a.s.sessment. Her lazy eyes swept past through the window, observing the rose garden outside.

"Eh ...?" The two examiners and the orphanage matron looked at each other.

"Isn"t she a mute?" asked the male examiner from Singapore to the matron. The fat woman just shrugged.

"She never talked before. But everyone said she was very intelligent, so we proposed an adoption for her by the Singaporean government," the woman answered. She looked as surprised as the two guests.

"Did you really say heroin earlier?" asked the female appraisal officer to her colleague.

The man just scratched his head. "Mmm .. I think so."

He opened his cellphone and checked the internet. Sure enough, it turned out that the little girl corrected what he had just uttered casually upon reading her full name, Emma Stardust.

He remembered now. At the beginning of their meeting, when he sat in front of Emma and examined the doc.u.ments regarding her, he commented lightly that Stardust, her last name, was a nickname for heroin used by the DEA (US Drugs Enforcement Agency).

It turned out that he was actually wrong. Stardust was a nickname for cocaine, not heroin. He just checked the internet as he got intrigued by Emma"s words.

Wow ... did this child simply happen to know this fact, or she just read a lot? But wasn"t she only five years old?

The man walked over to Emma and crouched down before her.

"Little girl... you can actually talk, but the matron said that you have never said a word until now. Why?" He asked attentively.

The little girl shrugged and answered indifferently in perfect English. "Everything has been fine so far."

"Oh ..." The man was amazed by Emma"s answer. He was immediately fascinated by this indifferent child.

From the results of the intelligence tests they had done earlier, this child"s IQ reached 155. What made them hesitate to accept Emma initially was the fact that this child could not speak.

Now, that was no longer an issue.

All this time, she actually just kept quiet because she felt no need for her to talk.

What a unique child! Her intelligence was also evident. She certainly would be valuable to Singapore. They finally decided to take her.

Thus, eleven years ago, Emma finally set foot in this country and became one of the many children adopted by the Singaporean government. She was raised in a good facility. She, like the other children, also got a decent life and education.

Unfortunately, only one month after the little girl arrived, something happened that made Mabel, the orphanage matron, become afraid of Emma and hate her. The girl"s life became very quiet because she was not allowed to be friends with other children.

For eleven years, Emma kept her determination to grow up well so she could get out of the orphanage and live independently. As soon as possible, she would work and save money to return to France and look for her family.

Her wish came true fast when the government launched a new program for the elderly who were living alone. This program was aimed to help every elderly without families, so they could have company and feel motivated to continue living.

The government provided an opportunity for poor young people who couldn"t afford to rent their own house to live with an elderly person in a two-bedroom apartment provided by the government.

This was beneficial for both parties. The young people would get subsidized housing. They only needed to pay for utilities, and the elderly would have company. Many cases of Alzheimer"s could be prevented or reduced by this program.

Emma tried her luck to apply for admission. The cover letter she wrote was so convincing that a board member allowed her to leave the orphanage. She could start living independently with one of the elderly in the program even though she was not yet 17 years old.

"I will work hard and live independently. After I have enough money, I will go to France and look for my family," she decided.

Now, the day she had been waiting for finally arrived. With only a backpack strapped on her shoulders, Emma left the orphanage and headed toward her new life. She would live with a 70-year-old lady whom she called Grandma Lin. They had met twice and grew to like each other.

For Emma, ​​living anywhere was fine, so long as she didn"t have to meet Mabel.

She couldn"t wait to leave this place!