The Astrologer's Vow

Family 2: The Boy in the Box

Emil sat in his little box on the street. There was a small hole through which light would enter. He had a set of belongings that were his and no one else's. It comprised of a torch, a small book and pen, a teddy bear and his coat. If you tried going anywhere near them...well...you wouldn't look the same even after a plastic surgeon tried to fix you and make you look pretty. He never realized that he was the cause for it and always used to wonder how it happened. One moment he saw a person with something that was his, and the next thing he knew, their jaw was broken beyond repair or one of their eyeballs would lying on the floor or...you get the point. 

Emil had lived in an orphanage since he was born. Story was that his parents had died in a freak accident just after he was born. A  man with tanned skin had brought him in. They say that the man had a small pointed beard and long-ish hair with strands of silver woven in the neatly set black. Everything about him seemed perfect. Yet, no one paid attention to him when he dropped off Emil. He was gone as soon as they started molly coddling the baby Emil. He was not required there anymore. Not for a while, at least. Emil was in the orphanage till the age of seven when he decided to run away. They used to lock him up because of the things he did to the other children in the orphanage. He could not bear it anymore. He was a little boy after all who wanted to go out and play and have fun. But the others thought of him as dangerous and at first he used to cry everyday that no cared about him. One day he shut his eyes tightly and wished like he had never wished before for him to be in the open with fresh air. He felt a slight breeze and realized he was on the main road near the orphanage. Emil was shocked when he got an view of his surroundings. In the same way, he went back quickly grabbed his few belongings and left. He had just turned seven that day and was happy with freedom as his birthday present. Since then, he's been living on the street for a year. Exactly a year. Today was his birthday. And he got the best birthday present any child living on the street in a box might ever want. A family.

Mila, a tall and slim woman with light brown hair, was walking to meet her husband at a nearby café, when she saw a little boy sitting in a cardboard box trying to scribble something in a little book of his. At that very moment, she knew that he was the one. Sometimes, one can simply know without any particular reason and that was exactly what Mila was feeling at that moment. She stood where she was and watched him for a while. Instantly she fell in love with this scrawny, dark haired boy. 

"Mila! I didn't realize this was the café." Her husband walked up to her smiling and looking around to indicate she was standing no where near a café.

"Oh Amos! Look!" she said pointing to the boy in the box,"I can just tell that he's the one!"

Amos looked at his wife sympathetically. He knew how badly she had wanted a child and how broken she became when she found out a year back that her ovaries had to be removed due to a cyst that had ruptured. 

"Let's go talk him, dear,"she went on as she continued to stare at him lovingly. Amos wanted nothing more than to make her happy and that was exactly what he felt when he saw that love fill her eyes. That love which had replaced the grief, pain, hopelessness and woe that was earlier constantly present in those beautiful dark brown eyes. Amos, relieved to see that there could still be life in wife's eyes, led her to the boy in the cardboard box. 

"Hello,"she said crouching down to reach his level,"What's your name?"

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The boy looked up at her from his book, surprised to see anyone talking to him. They usually just took his things. Never had they stopped to speak to him. Then it hit him, 'they are probably trying to talk me into giving something of mine to them!' "If you want any of my stuff, you can't have it!"

The lady blinked in surprise and said,"We don't want any of your things. Now that that is clear, do you mind telling us your name?"

"Emil,"he muttered when he realized his precious belongings were safe. 

"Emil! What a lovely name for a lovely boy! Emil, my name is Mila. May I ask what a sweet little boy like you is doing out on the street?" Emil thought this lady had gone bonkers. He was anything but a sweet little boy. He did not believe himself to be sweet at all, because of the "accidents" he caused. Yet he felt a sort of attachment to her, a slight feeling of comfort and belonging.

"Well, I ran away from that horrible home for little kids who don't have parents. The street is a better place than there. Please don't take me back there."

"The orphanage?" The boy nodded. "Don't worry. You will never have to go back to that place again. Say, how would you like to come live with us?" She motioned to the man next to her and herself and continued,"We will make sure you have a nice and comfortable home instead of this little box in the street. Would you like that?"

Emil considered this. He had really started taking liking to his little box. It made him feel like he had a home where he could be free and not locked up because of previous accidents. At the same time he was extremely tired and hungry and could think of nothing better than a nice warm house with fresh food instead of the remnant bits from the garbage and two people who loved him. Who actually loved him, which was, till now, only a place in his dreams. He looked gleefully at the couple whose faces reflected the same expression. Even though it was not needed to be said Emil squealed a happy "yes" and hugged the woman, Mila. She, too, hugged him back crying in joy that she finally had a son of her own.

A few weeks later, all the legal documents were signed and Emil was now officially the son of Mila and Amos Anders. They were, one could say, almost a perfect family. Almost. 

It had been exactly 6 months from when Mila had found Emil in the little box.  The family had gone out for lunch and were on the way back. 

"Oh Amos! What a lovely place that was,"said Mila from the front seat of the car,"we should go there more often."

"Yes, it truly was one of the best places I've eaten at."

"Amos look! It's that café I've been telling you about! Let's go there shall we?"

"Mila, we just ate! Maybe another time. Also, I can't stop the car now." 

"Oh! But if you had wanted to we would have stopped at once. Why is it always about you Amos?"

"Mila be practical! We just ate-" Emil tuned out the rest of the conversation. He was starting to get very annoyed by their bickering which had all of a sudden increased and they bickered about anything and everything. This was even starting to anger him a little. Suddenly he heard his name and was drawn back into the conversation. Mila was now almost yelling,"-and if it wasn't for Emil, that day, the reason I was planning to meet you was to break it off with you."

"What?! Why?!" That one moment he took his eyes off the road to look at his wife, was the last moment his eyes saw anything as they collided into a turning vehicle at the junction. An ambulance was called to take the seriously injured couple to the nearest hospital. Still, no one realized the boy fallen over on the floor of the backseat. No one noticed when he quietly made his way out of the car. No one noticed the crying boy slowly walk away from his dead step-parents, knowing there was no point staying around as he sensed they were already dead, and there was nothing he could do about it.