The Way I Need You

Chapter 1

KAO

"Kids, time for breakfast!"

I hollered while knocking on each of the five bedrooms of the orphanage, each of which has six beds occupied by boys ages four to twenty-five.

Not even a minute after, every door was opened with energize kids calling his name. Now this is new, the kids are almost impossible to wake up during Monday mornings.

"Kao! Did you cook the sausages Granny Mimi gave us yesterday?" Lester ask while looking at me with his huge brown eyes expectantly with the other kids standing behind him looking at me the same way.

"Ohoooo, you all wake up so early when you know you'll have a tasty treat for breakfast." He can't help but beam as he realizes why the kids was up early without a fuss.

Granny Mimi, is a retired teacher whose house is a few minutes away from the orphanage. She visits often to play or help teach the kids with their home works, and even though she really don't need to, she always buy groceries for the kids whenever she receives her monthly pension.

"Kaoooooooo," the kids whine and can't help but laugh at their cute behavior.

"Hahaha. Yes, and its already on the table. So, wash quickly before the food gets cold."

I watch them run through the hallways to the dinning area before I went through each bedroom to check that no one is left still sleeping.

On the third door he saw Cedric sitting on a bed which isn't his, with a very gloomy face, his eyes watery but no tears shed yet.

At twenty-five, Cedric is the oldest among all the boys in the orphanage. He was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome when he was young, due to his condition no one really expects him to leave the orphanage and because of this, he witnesses every coming and going of each kid.

"Cedie, I cook the sausages for breakfast." I sit beside his lanky figure on the newly abandoned bed.

It was always the same whenever a kid leaves the orphanage to be adopted or reunited with his own family, the latter as the current case.

"Kao, why didn't Ricky get back home last night?" Cedric ask, without looking at me.

"He is home now with his parents, Cedie." Not all the kids in the orphanage has no family, just like Ricky, whose parents can no longer support him and ask Papa Ed to look after him a few years back. Now that they are back on their feet, they got back Ricky.

But Cedie, always have a hard time accepting this kind of changes.

"But this is home." Cedie interjected more.

"Yes, I know. This is always going to be Ricky's home, it is just that now he needs to be with his Mama and Papa" I tried explaining, arms now link with Cedie coaxing him to look at me.

"Papa Ed?" Cedie ask.

"No, a different Papa who will surely take care of Ricky more that we take care of him." Cedie and I both look at the door where the voice came from. Papa Ed is leaning on the door frame looking at us with a smile on his face.

"Come on you two, get up the kids are now complaining because they can't start breakfast without the two of you." Papa Ed said as he held Cedie's hand before winking at me gesturing that he will handle it.

In the twenty years that I grew up in this house, Papa Ed is the one who runs this orphanage along with other Social Workers that I see come and go along the years. The only constant in this house is Papa Ed's tall and big frame, with graying hair that always has a big smile plastered on his face.