The old orphanage was put in the extreme end of town and its poor paint and rustic wooden gates spoke years lost in history. Not even the laughter of the children, which echoed indoors, could fill up the emptiness, and the laughter itself was hollow, and bounced off the broken walls and reverberated in the deserted corridors. Old floorboards and porridge still reeked of the air, and the slight odour of dampness in the view of a recent rain blended with it.
Ethan was sitting in the dormitory of his boys, as the setting sun cast long and orange shadows into the room. He was a big boy seventeen years old; with his dark hair tumbling all across his forehead, his eyes, big and serene, concealing more than they were disclosing. Ethan had since stopped promoting such dreams unlike the rest of the children who had the tendency to openly hope that they would be adopted by a rich family. At least the world had never been kind to such dreamers as he was, he reasoned.
"Ethan," a soft voice called.
He moved towards the door and caught a glimpse of Christiana. She had great brown smiling eyes that seemed to be smiling, the sort of smile that made a cold orphanage seems home. She was carrying a battered-out book, with its corners chewed off, and pages tawny.
She said almost in a whisper, they are coming tomorrow. The director replied, a rich family will come. Maybe... This time perhaps they will choose you.
Ethan shook his head smiling slightly. "I don't really care about that. They should take you in case of any one they may wish. You have never wanted to have a family.
Christiana went nearer and sat down next him, her little hand touching his. Oh, see I would not want to leave without going with you.
His heart beat was sending him a little flutter, which he soon smothered. He had been always shielding Christiana in the coarse situations of childhood, the bullies, the nights when the orphanage seemed lonely even more than usual, the long waiting until someone did not appear. She was not any other orphan to him. She was his best friend, his comforter, the only one who could know by his silence.
He was just going to reply, when the door of the dorm burst open, and one of the younger boys was screaming, They are there! The rich people have arrived!"
The orphanage was like a nervous system with electricity flowing through. The children hurried to the main hall where some of them were pulling out collars and clothes and others were experimenting with wide smiles in the mirrors or in the reflection of the windows. Even the normally austere director was walking with anxious impatience, and inspecting the floor once more like the removal of every vestige of the normal life that crowded the orphanage.
Ethan slowly was getting up now looking still at Christiana. Let us go, he said, but there was not much enthusiasm in the tone of which he was delivered.
They were led into the hall hand in hand. The tone was immediately changed, the dusty surface was stepped upon by polished pairs of shoes, and the sweet odour of a perfume displaced the usual odour of porridge and alkaline dust. One of the tall men in a black suit was standing beside a handsome lady, whose grace was silent, but undisputed. But they did not attract the attention of Ethan.
the girl was the one who like a shadow followed them.
Sophia.
Her porcelain skin was framed by long black hair and her hazel eyes crossed the room till they fell upon him. There was a short silence of the chatter and low whispers of the caretakers, then nothingness. She even appeared to make the room around her very gravely serious unspoken, and Ethan tightened his chest.
She got a breathless, and he suddenly was aware that something in his heart started moving, a spark he had previously felt that he lacked. There was something in the level clarity, the questioning aspect of her eyes, which appeared to be a world he had long since ceased to hope in.
And in a moment all about the orphanage, the crumbling walls, the empty laughter, the odour of old porridge were forgotten. However, he was not able to utter a single word, when the eyes of Sophia met his, and she whispered one word, which caused his stomach to turn inside out.