Coming Home: The Finders Series

CHAPTER 8: THE JOB BEGINS

While I was at work, I did what they expected of me. I put together field trips and activities around the place. I even put together a softball tournament for the kids. There were cookouts on the weekends, and for the Fourth of July, I also got a company named Rozzi's to put on the fireworks display, not just for the orphans, but for the entire town of Cattaraugus. We would have bake sales at the local store to help raise money, and one time we even held a car wash. It kept the Director from asking a bunch of questions about the funding for all the events, which was fine by me. They did not need to know that it was my various credit cards that were really funding all the activities and stuff. When I got the chance, I read up on the children by going through their files. The Director caught me one time, but I explained that I was trying to learn about their hobbies and stuff if they had any. I was having a particularly hard time getting them involved in activities. He bought it and let me browse their files as long as I needed to.

On more than one occasion, I was up in their rooms, looking around, trying to find something, anything that might give me a clue about them. Part of the failure to find anything useful on these kids was because the rooms held four occupants, and each occupant had a wardrobe, desk, and bed. It seemed that each occupant was allowed to hang up two pictures or posters on the wall next to the bed or on the wardrobe. You can tell that the furnishings have all been donated or purchased second-hand because no two wardrobes matched. Still, everything was neat and clean. As I looked around the room at the desks, I just wish they were labeled in some way so I could tell whose desk was whose. Throughout all this, I was trying to get these two kids involved in the activities. Searching the records did prove me right about one thing, however, they were 13 and 12, respectively. A search of the ship's manifest, however, turns up nothing on their parents.  This did make me doubt whether these two were ours or not, but then the question raised was, what had them so scared? All these changed at the start of September.

The rest of the place was enjoying the gentle warm breezes, and many of the kids were having loads of fun with the kites that were "donated" to the home by a "wealthy donator who wished to remain anonymous."  These two were once again in private conversation, or so they thought. I had made it a habit of positioning myself where I could watch them without being easily detected or being too conspicuous as to what I was doing. The only one who knew what I was doing was Phil, and I never sweat it with him. Eric and Elizabeth were talking amongst themselves about a good time they were having with their parents, and Elizabeth shared a memory with Eric. That's when I saw it. It was a memory of their father in the swimming pool.  He was a handsome man, toned but not overly muscled.  He, too, had blond hair, but his eyes were green.  However, that is not what caught my attention.  On his upper arm, plain as day, it showed!  The identifier!  He was one of us!

"Yes!" I shouted out before I caught myself.  I had to think fast as I had drawn the unwanted attention of staff and kids alike.  "I have been working on a crossword puzzle for weeks now, and I just figured out the final word for the puzzle.  Sorry about that, folks.  I guess I got a little carried away."  The adults nodded and chuckled.  One teacher even commented that she knew what that felt like.  I had hoped that the kids would share a memory of their mother but I was not that lucky.  It didn't matter, though, because if their dad was one of us, then they were too.

It was then that I got an idea.  I hurried to my car.  I had not been able to find his name in the manifest, but what if... I dared not finish that thought before checking.  In my car, I entered the names of Eric and Elizabeth into the manifest search tool.  Bingo!  I was on a roll.  Those names did appear in the manifest.  It was all too clear to me now.  The parents were not brother and sister but rather were single children without siblings.  This meant that when they got adopted here on Earth, it was as brother and sister.  This stopped them from being able to get married, so they changed their names so they could get married.  They felt guilty about that, though, so they gave their real names to the children.  I was seeing no other familial relationships in the records. Either their parents did not survive the journey or they died in the crash as the ship was breaking up.  That meant that they were truly orphans.  Boy, did I have a ton of stuff to tell Phil after dinner tonight.  I was totally excited by this discovery.