Lights Will Guide You Home

Michael

"Really? You're going?" I stopped colouring and looked up at Claire.

Claire had brought her friend Aiden to the orphanage. He seemed pretty cool. He was standing across the room chatting with some of the older boys. Claire came and sat at the table where Jay, Kayla and I were colouring.

"I'm going for just two weeks, and I'll be back before you know it."

I put down my crayon. I didn't feel like colouring anymore. I didn't want Claire to go. I had never had a mother and I didn't know what it was like to have one but to me Claire was very close to what I'd heard a mother a was supposed to be.

I think Claire figured out how I was feeling even though I tried to look happy for her.

"Hey, Claire," Aiden said, walking up to the table. "Um some of the boys said something about instrumentals and singing in a bit. Could we stick around for that?"

"Yeah sure," Claire said enthusiastically. "You know, Rae's the one who usually leads the whole thing. You should definitely stick around." It sounded like she was teasing Aiden. But all Aiden said was "cool."

Claire turned to look at me, and then back to Aiden. "Hey here's a thought. Aiden, why don't you take Michael out to see your Harley? He loves drawing stuff, I bet he could draw you a picture of it. What do you say, Michael?"

"A Harley Davidson?" my eyes widened. "Woah!" Out of all the cool bikes in the world, I think Harleys are the coolest. I hadn't even seen one up close. I was super excited.

Aiden, Claire and I went outside. The Harley was awesome! "When I'm older, I know what I want to ride," I said to Aiden. He smiled in a very cool way. I really liked Aiden.

"You really like it, huh?" Claire asked.

I smiled and nodded.

She then bent down and looked into my eyes. "Michael...you're really okay with me going away to Spain, aren't you?"

I wanted to be happy for her and say yes but I just couldn't lie to her. I didn't say anything.

She bit her lip and after a while asked,"Michael...would you like to come to Spain with us?"