The stars had vanished behind the heavy snowflakes. The frost was so harsh that you could no longer even feel it, used as you were, after so many hours, to a thermometer dropping like money out of a bank account after payday. With the wind rustling through the broken rooftops, you could no longer even hear your teeth chattering in your mouth.
On a night like this, Ayana, a five-year-old girl with golden curls, wandered the streets to scrape together some money. It would have been just the thing for the whole family's Christmas table.
Away from home for some five hours now, Ayana was disheartened by the way people looked at her whenever she tried to sell them her wares, so she plucked up her courage and walked into the first restaurant she saw. She slipped between the fancy tables, where tall, warm candles glittered. It was so lovely inside. A lady was dabbing the corner of her mouth with a napkin, careful not to smudge her lipstick. Ayana tried to go unnoticed, carrying on her back a torn rucksack, through whose hole peeked the brand-new stove lighters she had taken from the warehouse on the edge of town with the last tears she had cried that day. She marched straight up to the Chef.
- Dear Chef, I don't know what you're cooking in here, but it smells incredible!
The cook was stunned.
- I'm only in the area today, and since I know how hard your work is, I thought I'd stop by and leave you these lighters. They're colorful, they catch your eye right away, you won't have to go hunting for them all over this big kitchen, they're just the right size for a smaller hand and a bigger one alike, they've got a spectacular design, and since tomorrow is Christmas, I won't keep you long, I'll give you all ten of them for 300 lei. Here you go, one, two, three...
- I think I... the cook tries to get a few words out, but he is quickly cut off by the girl's firm little voice.
- Oh, I don't have any more, but I'll come round after Christmas and bring you some!
- Well... he struggles to chime in again...
- No, I really can't come on Christmas, I have to take at least two or three days off for myself too...
The Chef gives her a long look, helpless, unable to make another sound, and holds out his hands to Ayana, who wishes him the best of luck and asks him, on top of the 300 lei, for a warm brownie fresh from the oven.
And so the little girl runs off home with the money in the pocket of her old, weather-worn coat, letting her family know that from now on she's done with selling on the streets.