Dating the Dead • lrh

17. questions

I had a love-hate relationship with children. They can either be cute cherubs or midget monsters. My little cousins were mostly the latter in comparison with the kids at the orphanage. They were noisy but participative.

And I admit I enjoyed teaching the alphabet and singing nursery rhymes with them. After everybody had done their post-lunch duties, the children sat on their chairs in front of their notebooks. The older kids alternately sat with the younger ones.

"What are we going to do now?" I stood beside Shelby. We had dragged the table with the boxes in front. "You said the older kids have a different class."

She only laughed. "You ask a lot of questions. Is that how you plan on living your life? Questioning and worrying about what would happen next instead of just living life the way it is?" When she saw my stern expression, her face fell. "Well, shit."

Before I could respond, a small hand tugged at my comparably large one. It was Sean, the kid I held in my lap earlier. Turned out he was four years old and was staying for six months at the orphanage already. Shelby refused to tell me how Sean ended up here.

"Hey there," I crouched so I can be in level him. He handed me a piece of paper. "What's this?"

"Dit it me and dit it you," he pointed at the two stick figures with squiggles underneath. "Fwam Sean, fow Yukey."

I wrapped an arm around the kid, smiling. "Thank you. I'm going to keep this." Once I let go, he kissed me on the cheek and skipped towards his seat.

Shelby smiled down at me then turned to the children. I stood upright as she spoke and as Ashton joined us in front beside me."Okay guys, you know how this is done," he said and the kids on the first row lined up.

"Um, I don't," I told him. I'd ask Shelby but she was the first stop. The kids handed her a stack of paper and she insert them in separate folders.

He looked at me for a second and if looks could kill, his hazel eyes already sent a nuclear bomb in my way. "Alright then, let's switch. You hand the crayons instead."

As much as I didn't want to move away from Shelby, I did because I had no idea what to do. Ashton handed out a stack of papers from notebooks while I gave the kids three crayons bound in tape.

Once the children on the first row was done, the second row kids stood up and formed a line. We were all stopped short when a couple of nuns walked through the yard with a couple of kids. A girl about ten years old was carrying a boy who looked like two years old.

Shelby tapped Ashton on the shoulder. "You guys go on, I'll talk to them." She left and met the nuns halfway down the yard where they engaged in a conversation.

"Alright, you guys, new kids. Leave at least two papers for them, yeah?" Ashton said once the last row was done and Harper want back to the corner he was standing by before he lent a hand. Shelby had taken the new children to the side of the cottage where she fed them lunch.

Just as the children were stitching their notebooks, Ashton and I helped the younger ones. Then, Shelby led the new kids in front and cleared her throat, catching all of our attentions.

"Hey guys! We have new friends. This is Haley," she took the boy from Haley's arm, "and Marcus." Shelby raised the boy's arm to wave at us. He let out a giggle. "Haley, you can go around and meet them, they will give you papers."

Hayley smiled shyly, "Okay."

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