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The Boxcar Children is my jam and I still stalk this series to an obsessive degree. They go from having dead parents to running away from the baker and his wife, from living in a boxcar to living with their grandfather. The 1924 version is a little darker than the ones in the public libraries, the children literally having to go fetch the bakers wife to help with their drunkard fathers dead body.

So, this time, we’ll put them into the 90’s. Their mother is still dead, their father still drunk. But, this time, they know about their Grandfather, they know he is a kind man. Their mother told them about him before she had passed.

The night they run away, Henry is sitting on a chair beside his father’s bed. He does this every night when his father comes home drunk. He’s fourteen-years-old, not old enough to leave school and work, he knows he and his siblings are dependent on their father as the breadwinner. But that doesn’t mean that things are good for them. So, Henry doesn’t turn his father’s body to his side when he starts puking like he did almost every night. This time, Henry gets up off the chair and shuts the door. He grabs a suitcase and a backpack, packs, wakes up his siblings, hands Jessie the backpack and they run.

Then they go looking for their Grandfather.

Henry:

Fourteen-years-old. The oldest Alden siblings. Resourceful, hardworking, witty, kind, caring, loving. He keeps his siblings safe and never lets his guard down. This is a choice he made and now he has to live with the consequences. But the consequences are worth it if their father never has a chance, to lay a hand on his little sisters and brothers ever again. A little bit tired, kinda really wired, but he will always try his best for them.

Jessie:

Twelve-years-old. She’s Henry’s second in command. Always willing to listen to Henry, but when he needs her opinion on a call, she tries her best. She helps Henry with Violet and Benny, always trying to help lighten the load for him, so he doesn’t have to always take care of her and their younger siblings. She’s scared, and knows that Henry is, too. But if he’s able to put on a brave face for everyone, then she knows that they’ll be okay.

Violet:

Ten-years-old. A small girl with a big personality beneath her quiet and shy demeanor. She tries her best to keep up with her older siblings, but knows that it’s okay if she falls short. That’s what older siblings are for. She knows that she and Benny are safe with Henry and Jessie, knows that they are all safe with Henry, and always listens to them. It’s not a situation where she can afford to pitch a fit over trivial things, so she’ll suck it up and march on ahead.

Benny:

Six-years-old. He’s trying his hardest to be well-behaved. He is only six, after all. He tries his hardest to cry less and listen better. Henry and Jessie are looking after his best interest, and he knows it. He promises himself to try his hardest to keep up with his siblings and when he manages not to whine about being hungry after three days of hiking on nothing but bread and water, he sticks his chin up with pride when none of his siblings are looking.

The Alden siblings go through a traumatic experience. Henry is the one who voluntarily let’s his father die so that he and his younger siblings can run. He’s fourteen, he’s not an adult and he’s stuck with a bum adult who was supposed to love him and his siblings and not drink every night and starve them and put them through drunken abuse. The world is shit and people make choices. Henry made a choice, it affects him and his siblings and now he has to live with his choices.