(Orion Ligh)
(10 years Old)
This can't be happening, it must be some joke, right? Please no, it can't be, she promised. Promises can't be broken, everyone knows it. I refuse to believe it.
I can't even make out what I'm seeing, tears have already blurred my vision. The rain doesn't even make it easy. I can't go through this again. Who will want me now?
"...to celebrate the life Jocelyne lived....it's sad to see such a beautiful person taken from us, but such is life...," the words of the priest began to fade again.
Richard hasn't even shed any tears, it must mean she's still with us. She's his wife. I'm looking around, but the atmosphere says otherwise. My siblings are crying.
As the coffin is being lowered to the ground, that's when reality dawns on me. I'm never gonna see her again. My knees give way and I fall, but no one is there to catch me, no one has spared me a glance, not even Richard, and certainly not my new siblings I came to know. Everyone else has someone to hold on to, but what about me?
"Hey... it's okay...it's okay.....let it out..." Miss Camella whispers as she pulls me into her tight embrace. Is it though? Is it okay? Richard hasn't spoken to me at all, no one has spoken to me. My seat was on the left side, not even on the family and friends side, while at the Church. No one came to offer me condolences. I had even been forgotten at the church. Miss Camella was the one who offered me a ride to the burial site. It's happening again, she's leaving me, too. I'll be all alone again. Am sure of it. My new family has started to distance themselves from me, I can feel it, and it adds to the hurt I am feeling.
"Orion," Richard calls my name with no emotions at all, am directed to sit in the chair across from him in his office. This is a week later after the burial took place, and not once has he even acknowledged my existence during the entire ordeal.
"You must be wondering what I called you here for, to put it, my late wife Jocelyn adopted you after the fire that took you're parents from you, two years ago." his pause signifies that he's about to say something bad, which will hurt "I... I'm....no....not sure what to do with you, as you aren't related to me." Is this when I lose the little family I craved for?
Jocylene had been a firefighter who'd rescued me from a fire that our neighbor had started by accident. My parents had protected me from the fire by hiding me in the bathtub. They had promised to come back for me when the fire died down, but they never did. I had been rescued by a bulky firefighter who happened to be Jocylene. She tried her best to shield me from the news, that's what I remember her shouting at her captain, who had just laid it out for me that I was the sole survivor. It was evident that I was alone. It's funny, isn't it, looking back at it, I should have insisted to my parents that they stay with me, like every other kid when they were scared, but I had to be brave for my mom and pops. Sadly, I had no relatives who'd want me. Who wants an extra mouth to feed and a burden they never had anything to do with its conception? That's when Jocylene decided to adopt me. Her husband was against this idea from the very start, but he never had the last say since his three kids, Max, the oldest and the only boy, Maxine, and Maximilian were all girls and wanted to have a little brother. Looking back at it, maybe they just wanted someone to fill in the blanks of their sibling bond to match out the numbers, and maybe they just wanted to please their mother by siding with her. It almost feels like they thought they couldn't adopt me like I was some kind of bet among the siblings, because Jocylene always made them play with me, as I was a quiet and sad kid. They had never even asked anything about me.
"Are you even listening to me!?" I was brought back by Richard's angry tone.
"As I was saying," nodding to signify am listening he continued " I can't take care of you, but Jocylene had saved a little fund she could, to ensure that you get the basic education the rest is up to you, that being said I'll take care of you till you are of legal age, I hope we are clear, the rest is up to you."
The world is a cruel place, all this talk about a greater place when there's none. I left his study office and walked out the door. I didn't know where I was heading or why, but I needed to see if there was a greater place where all our worries would just go away. I knew a little greater place than the playground.
" Swings are supposed to make you happy, don't you think?" I turned my head to be met by a boy who seemed around 14 years old with icy blue eyes. It felt as though he was staring directly at my soul, creepy. I hadn't even felt his presence next to me as I was swinging on the swing, my happy place.
"Ye...yea..yeah sure." I manage to croak out.
"Are you okay? You don't seem to be."
"Hunh? No, I'm okay." Feigning a little smile.
"Am the cold emperor, get it, my eyes are icy blue." Normally, the joke would make me laugh, but I could not even smile. How sad is that? I just took his hand to seem polite, but I had no desire to make new friends.
Trying to at least make conversation, my voice sounded even more broken, "I'm the wicked witch of the west." The boy just stared at me as if I had said something disgusting, but he didn't show it instead, he just lifted my chin with his forefinger.
"Ooh... now I get it, green eyes, green as the witch." He seemed pleased with himself for figuring it out. Something else about the boy caught my attention, he wears two necklaces.
"Ooh, these, yeah, I just bought them, but I didn't know who to give the other one to." Wait, did I just say that out loud?
"Yeah, you kinda did ."
"Sorry." He then just busted laughing.
"Here you can have the moon, and I will remain with the sun. Then if and when we meet again, I'll know you by it, okay."
"Promise?" I sounded a little childish when I wanted to seem older than him.
"I promise, I pinky promise on it." He wasn't joking, pinky promises are the real deal.
An older gentleman in a tux appeared, and the boy left. I hadn't even gotten his name, but it wasn't like we would ever get to meet again.
On my walk to my house, I kept staring at the necklace and the sky, but it seemed like there wasn't any moon today. I kept thinking that maybe the necklace was magical, so that I could make a wish on it and it would come true.
I kept going to the playground in hopes of finding the boy again. I didn't even know why I wanted to, but he was never there. I even told Miss Camella, she was thrilled I had found a new friend. I even began to doubt myself, that maybe he was just my imaginary friend. I just wished to meet him again, because he was at least the only good thing that had happened to me, even if we were both strangers.
At home Richard and the trio had grown distant from me, they didn't want to play with me at all. They became busy, but the hurt was evident in their eyes. They went out together but just not with me. That's when I finally knew that I was truly alone.