Art

Hope

December 13th 2014, Friday

        "Elaine, where is your mind at?" My mum asked me as we sat down to breakfast together. It'd been a long time since we had proper breakfast, she was being called day and night for children cases and I was incredibly occupied with the Home.

        I hadn't even been at the home for a week yet and I'd already got attached to the children, especially Ellie and Annie and Suzie.

        Devon was still a big mystery to me, just as I thought he was opening up, he reverted back to shutting himself away. After the bus had pulled back to the Home, he'd gotten off it so fast and proceeded to run into the Home without even saying goodbye.

        I didn't even know what status we were in terms of a relationship. I didn't even know if we were friends now or if I was still an acquaintance with him.

        "Mum, how is it so easy for you to make people trust you?" I asked.

        "I can only do that with children Elaine and it's easy to do so. No matter what children go through, they will still have that innocence to them that makes them open to just about anyone. With adults, however, that is a completely different story." She explained.

        "What about a 16 year old boy who wants to shut the whole world out?" I asked her and she smiled.

        "Oh, who's this about then?" She asked still grinning and I rolled my eyes.

        "Mum, I don't like him. He's just a guy that is in the Home I work at."

        "I thought you were the only full time volunteer?" She asked, surprised.

        "He lives in the Home." I answered and she stopped buttering her toast.

        "Oh, well, that is a completely different story isn't it? The only advice I can give you, in that case is for you to take it slowly. You don't know his past, and you don't want to say the wrong thing to him. If he is shutting himself away from everyone, you have to slowly make him realise he can trust you.

        Especially if he's gone through a troubled past, the most important thing you have to make him realise is that you won't break his trust. Once he knows that, he'll start to open up." She concluded, patting my hand.

        I thought of Devon and my attempts to get him to be more inclusive at the beach. I'd shown him that it was okay to let loose for once and interact with other people and a positive result had come of it. I grinned, finally eating.

        "Thanks mum, I know what to do now."

*

        Shopping for Devon's gift was a lot harder than I thought. Although I knew there were many things I could get for him, it was hard to do that without giving myself away. I made a stop at the mall before going on my shift, trying to find something to give to him.

        I thought of giving him something Ed Sheeran related, but he'd played me Photograph yesterday and he'd probably put two and two together and realise I'm his secret Santa.

        I couldn't give him anything else related to Doves, he'd commented on my pendant during that night outside the cabin. If I kept giving him dove related things, he'd also put two and two together and realise I'm his secret Santa.

        Devon was the master of indirects and as I stared at a couple of postcards, I thought of what I could give him which would be incredibly obvious that I was his secret Santa but not so obvious at the same time. I gasped, realising the perfect thing. I ran into a technology shop and grabbed a Polaroid camera in blue, purchasing it and running out of the mall.