The Orphanage (short story, completed)

Adoption Day

Too soon, the dreadful "dong, dong, dong" terror awoke me from my realm of dreams. I stared groggily around in surprise. We normally don't wake up at 6:00 in the morning. Then with a groan I remember... It was adoption day.

With a sigh, I stumbled out of my cot, landing ungracefully on the rough pine floor, scratching up my bare feet in the process.

"Are you ready to get adopted?" Jonathan asked in a cheerful tone, laughing at my clumsy maneuvers. Jonathan is always optimistic at every adoption day. He says, "if you believe you can be adopted, you will be adopted." He is the opposite of me. I have long since given up hope of being adopted. It is just a nuisance having to wake up so early and watch others being adopted.

I scrubbed my face clean, rinsing my skin free of dirt. A dirty face meant you were looking for trouble. I hurried with the other boys to the adopting room, the nicest room of the orphanage.

The adoption day started out like any adoption day did. We all stood in the the adoption room, our legs growing increasing sore. No one gets up at 7:00 just to adopt a kid. A couple came in much earlier than I suspected. Apparently people do wake up at 7:00 to adopt a kid.

The husband is a clean shaven man, with wrinkles crinkling the corner of his eyes by his constant smile. I decide to call him Mr. Smiley. Mr. Smiley wears a mud splattered plaid shirt with mud splattered jeans.

His wife, on the other hand, has clean clothes with no mud staining them. She has short brown hair, curling in at the ends. Like her husband, she also has smile wrinkles and surprisingly, her smile is aimed at us. I liked her immediately and decide to call her Mrs. Smiley. (Super original right?) Mrs. Smiley wears a plain but clean, ironed, peach colored blouse as well as a pink and white striped skirt. Each stripe of about an inch wide and reaches down to the knees. I watched the skirt sway as she walked, picturing myself walking out with her. I quickly wiped that thought from my mind. I hated giving hope to myself, just to crash into the ground ten times harder.

Every kid in the orphanage seemed to be entranced by the couple. It was like a dream that would end to soon. To everybody except one. One very lucky person. Even Rodrick and his cronies weren't fooling around. I swear I heard Rodrick telling one of his friends to, "shut your face up." (The day was full of surprises). The couple walked hand in hand, I clearly saw the love expressed between them. What I would give to be... No. I couldn't think such thoughts. They (the thoughts), should be illegal in my mind.

I snapped back to attention and out of my traitorous brain as I heard Mrs. Smiley say to Mr. Smiley, "Do you think we should give it to them now?"

"Yes," Mr. Smiley answered immediately and without hesitation. "These poor children are as thin as they come." I wondered what "it" was. I stared vividly at Mr. Smiley's hand as he reached into his jean pocket and pulled out something. A piece of homemade candy, wrapped in aluminum foil, gleaming from the overhead lights. It sparkled. The candy also clearly had a sign that said nice and clear, "EAT ME!!!" I had a great desire to fulfil that sign.

"Why don't we pass out the hard-candies right now?" Mrs. Smiley suggested in her musical tone.

"That's fine with me," Mr. Smiley said, grabbing fistfuls of candy out of his pocket and gave half of the candy to Mrs. Smiley. Every single kid has his/her eyes on his hand. Then they walked toward us... and started distributing the candy!

"Here you go, honey," Mrs. Smiley said, showing gleaming white teeth as she smiled and passed a piece of candy up to me. I froze, not saying a word. On the other side of the room, I heard Rodrick say, "thank you kind sir." He was being a suck up to the grown-ups. As always.

"This looks so good!" Jonathan exclaimed delightedly, popping the candy immediately into his mouth. I decided to do the same, carefully unwrapping the aluminum foil and feeling it crinkle beneath my fingers, revealing a piece of bright orange candy. All around me, kids were quickly popping their candies into their mouths, exclaiming in delight. I popped mine into my mouth, my taste buds savoring the burst of flavor emitting from this little piece of food. I sighed with pleasure as my whole mouth tasted like orange.

Now every kid was on their best behavior. Even Rodrick was standing at attention. Who wouldn't want to be adopted by the candy giving couple? To my greatest horror, the couple was walking towards the left side of the room... AWAY FROM ME!!!

"Would you like to be adopted young man?" Mr. Smiley asked, pointing at Rodrick. I was suffocating. I was drowning in disappointment. I was wallowing in misery. I was... wait.

"It's a dream come true!" I yelled in delight to Jonathan, a smile splitting my face. "Rodrick will be gone!"

"I know, Thomas," he said, grinning so broadly, he could have swallowed a house. "I know."

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