What happened?

My first birthday in an orphanage

Lauren

Okay, my first birthday stood before. It was August 11. I was there for like 1 month. Nobody knew about my birthday, just one of the caregivers knew about it. I was actually kinda sad, because I knew this would be the first birthday without my family and my friends. The first birthday without Christina. The first birthday in Japan.

I was glad that the caregivers spoke English as well. That day, Haku, the one who knows my birthday, came up to my room and knocked on. As usual I was reading. I couldn't do much more... Oh and haku wasn't much older than me. He was around 19.

'Lauren? It's Haku. May I come in?' he asked from the other side of the door.

'Yeah. come in.' I said and got up of my bed. He entered the room and sat on a chair.

'So, since your birthday is tomorrow, I was wondering what you would like to have for your birthday... If I am allowed to ask.' he said and kinda looked unsure. He knew that I wasn't happy at all..

'Can you bring my family to me?...' I asked and looked down to my hands. Then, I felt how Haku sat down next to me on the bed and laid his hand on my shoulder. I was nearly crying..

'Lauren, I'm sorry. I would if I could. I'm serious.' he said and pulled me into a hug, because I actually started crying.

'I miss them so much..' I cried into his chest.

'I know...' he whispered and stroke along my hair. I think I just needed that. Someone to give me a hug..

'Thank you..' I said after a few minutes, came out of the hug and wiped my tears away. He smiled at me. At that point he didn't know what exactly happened, just that I was involved in a Tsunami disaster and that I lost my family. I decided to tell him, but he was already about to go out.'

'Haku? Wait..' I turned around. He closed the door again and came back to my bed.

'Yes?' he asked.

'Could I tell you about the tragedy..?' I stuttered, because I knew that it would be hard.

'Of course.' he smiled and sat back down next to me.

I told him all what I could remember and the last thing I could see was Christina running away from me, because at first we ran together but when a tree cut our way, she ran away, we locked at each other one more time and then I just screamed at her to come back..

When I finsihed with the fact that Christina was the lost one I've seen, I broke down in tears again and also Haku had tears in his eyes...

'I have siblings too.. I could never live without them. This makes me so sad Lauren!' he told me...

--next day--

I got up at 7am, which wasn't something new. I just couldn't sleep that well and yeah.. So, I got up and changed my clothes. Then I straighly walked up to the bathroom. Everyone was still sleeping... I looked into the mirror.

'So, this is the 16 year old me. An orphanage..' I thought. I remembered that since I was 14, I dreamed about my Sweet 16. I wanted to go to the fair with my sisters, then In N out Burger with my friends. Then fireworks at night. Haha, one of my friends even wanted to get a date for me, for my birthday.

So, when I was ready, I went downstairs to get some milk. Unfortunally, Haku came in to. He scared me when I was on the fridge. I almost dropped the milk.

'Happy Birthday Lauren!' he smiled and turned around.

'Thank you so much Haku.' I smiled back and hugged him. Then he handed me a little package. He had it behind his back. It was really cute. It was wrapped in pink paper and had a cute white ribbon on the top.

'Ohh that's for me?? Thank you!' I smiled and took the package. I sat down on the table and opened it. It was a small book called 'One day, Baby.', a book, full of inspiring poetries. There was also a note saying 'One day, you will find them' and a cute little necklace saying 'Hope'.

'Oh my gosh Haku! That's so amazing! Thank you so much!' I jumped up, directly into his arms.

'No problem. I thought you would like it.'

In that moment he put my hair away and laid the necklace around my neck.

'Would you like to go to the city today?' he asked.

'Why not, I would love to get out of the house.' I said.

'Fine. So, I'll just go to do some stuff but I'll back in a like 2 or 3 hours. So, you can have breakfast. Is that okay?'

'Definitely.' I said and he rushed out.

I spent some time sitting in the community kitchen, reading in the new book. I just fell in love with it and it was so quiet... until everyone came down. Oh, 8:30am. Breakfast. There we all had to participate in cooking, cleaning and stuff. So, I stood up and quickly rushed upstairs to bring the book away. Then I helped the others to prepare breakfast.

During breakfast, I kinda missed Haku, because he was the one I could actually talk to... the other kids just talked in Japenese and didn't pay attention to me. But this morning I just ignored it, I was just excited for the city with Haku.

Time passed and I got ready for the city. Haku was still not there when I was ready, so I sat on the stairs on the yard. After like 20 minutes, he finally came to pick me up and so we walked down to the city.

He showed me some exciting sights and we even went to the city fair. It wasn't huge, but really funny anyway. We had some rides, he bought cotton candy for me and he even won a stuffed owl for me. I really enjoyed it. But then, the orphanage called him and told him that we should come back. It was around 2 or 3 I think.

When we came back, I was so annoyed because I knew I would be lonely again, but when I entered the house, everyone was downstairs in the community room.

'Tanjoubi Omedetou!' They all yelled and I even knew what it meant. 'Happy Birthday' obviously.

'Was that planned?' I turned around to Haku and raised one eyebrow. He just laughed raised his shoulders

'Thank you, everyone.' I said and the main 'boss' came up to me with a birthday cake. I blew out the candles and then we all had cake, but like I excpected it.. everyone went away from me and talked to each other.. I knew this 'celebration' was for me, but I just put down my plate and ran upstairs crying in my pillow.. At this point I really wanted my siblings around me... They were missing. It was so different to celebrate a birthday in an orphanage. I didn't want to be alone anymore...

So, I spent the rest of the day in my room. I even locked it. I read and starred at the necklace several times. I think Haku also knocked on a few times.. I knew it was wrong to ignore his knocks, because he was nice to me all day, but I just couldn't talk to someone.

Before I went to bed, I went downstairs to look what happened to the 'celebration'.. Some of the banners were still up and some ballons laid on the ground. Even a plate with cookies and my plate were there, but everyone else was gone, and the lights were out. I went to the armchair and sat down. I thought about this day, until I noticed a little note next to my plate.

'Hope you had a great day Lauren :)' I read and smiled to myself.

I went upstairs and closed the door behind my back. I walked up to my window, it started raining, looked at the headlight, which was right in front of my window, and said 'Happy birthday Christina.' I breathed deeply and then I went to my bed.