Catch Me If I Fall || R.Grayson ||

Constantly On The Move:

It always seemed to be raining every time Richard Grayson looked out his bedroom window. A bedroom, but in all reality, it felt more like a cell. It was cold, and dark, and the little cot in the corner was hard and lumpy. Even in his family's trailer, he had had a decent bed. Now he was left with a thin blanket and sagging matrice. He was only able to bring a handful of belongings with him to the detention facility, including his stuffed elephant, and a change of clothes, though the warden had all the children wear the same grey uniforms.

He still didn't know why they had to take him away from the circus. He had been whisked away that very night, even though he clung to the man that had caught him, and later, Jack Haley. He had been certain that Haley wouldn't let anything else happen. A week after the show, there was a funeral. The circus troop were the only people that showed up, but that was understandable; the troop was their family. The troop looked out for each other.

And that's why little Dick didn't know why he wasn't allowed to stay with them.

The warden at the detention facility told him that he would be able to go back to them once everything was settled, but no news came, even a week after the circus was originally scheduled to pick up and move. A week turned into a month. And to a six year old, a month felt like a lifetime to be alone in a cold room.

Like any kid his age, Dick was quiet and afraid. Every night when he closed his eyes, he would see see his parents fall, and he would wake up with a cold sweat and a scream in his throat. Sometimes he fell, too; sometimes he dreamt that the man hadn't caught him, and he never stopped falling.

The other children in the detention facility weren't nice. They were mean, and turned cold because of their situations. There was no room for kindness there, just discipline and harsh punishment for simple things like the inability to speak much English, like Dick. His family lived in Romania before they joined the circus, and they only started foreign tours when he was four. Learning every language before visiting a country seemed a little much for a six year old, but his mother had tried teaching him a few words and phrases, but he wasn't in the mindset to learn; he just wanted to fly, and nothing else mattered to him.

Dick went to bed hungry most nights. Since it rained a lot during his time there, he almost never got to go outside. There weren't that many kids his age there, either. The older kids were mean and scary, and the adults were probably worse.

Four months passed in the detention facility.

Dick would sit in petrified silence, wondering when everything would be sorted out.

When he could just go home.

He followed a dull routine every day until the change came; wake up from a nightmare, get up, suffer through the day, and repeat. By the time September rolled around, he was nothing more than a ghost of a boy, barely alive in the sense of purpose. It was lunch when things started to happen.

A man and a woman came into the cafeteria, both wearing matching blue suits, and carrying briefcases. They exchanged a few words with one of the lunch monitors, who gave a short nod, and fixed Dick with a look from across the room. The lunch monitor held the little boy's gaze, and slowly made his way to where he was sitting alone at a table near the back.

"You done eating?"

Dick looked down at his half eaten sandwich, and nodded.

"Good. People are here for you,"

Dozens of thoughts and emotions swelled through Dick all at once. Who were those people? Were they nice? What did they want? Am I going home now? He got up and followed the lunch monitor to the man and woman.