Orphan

The orphan! she thought exultantly.  The other way to live.  There were secret ways.   She thought, Time's really short, I've been only thinking like the others.  It's only interesting, only worthy, to try for the fiercest secrets.  To slip into them all--to change.  To change for a moment into Gertrude, into Mrs. Gruenwald, into Twosie--into a boy.  To have been an orphan.

E. Welty