Seeker

CHAPTER 1 - I'VE BEEN ADOPTED

The sounds of frolicking children echoed in the background, as the middle aged, beautiful woman stared at the one child sitting by himself under a tree reading, isolated, yet adjacent to the children. "Not gonna join them?" She spoke to him with no response in return "What are you reading?" She tried again, "the ugly duckling." He responded. "Do you like it?" "It's okay." This place was an orphanage. Yes, and like any other middle aged woman who hasn't been blessed with the fortune of marriage, despite being beautiful, she came to adopt a child. "Um, auntie I'm trying to read, can you leave?" The child said to her. "I'm sorry, I'll leave for now but I'll be back." She said as she quietly left the yard. The child peeked at her as she quietly walked away with a pinch of excitement, he was looking forward to seeing her again. The next day she didn't come, and the day after and the day after until one evening after cleaning the playground, the caretaker called him and gave him something wrapped in brown paper. It was another story book, a gift from the young woman. "Jack and the Beanstalk." he was so excited to read it that he flung the broom away and ran to his spot under the mango tree. However, trouble wasn't far away when the other kids became jealous and pulled the book away. "Give it back! It's mine." "I don't see your name anywhere." Said the bully. "How can you? When he doesn't even have a full name." They mocked him, teased him and laughed at him. "Give it back, that's a gift that she ... that person gave to me." He grabbed hold of one end as it became a tug of war stance of for the book. Little by little the book began to tear and it tore through the middle. "Haha loser." Said the kid as he threw the other half of the book unto the child clinging his half. What will she say if she sees this? He thought to himself, will she still talk to me? Will she still want to take me? He closed his eyes and covered his ears. Will she hate me? Just then a loud sound of a slap was heard. He opened his eyes and saw her standing in front the bully. "Didn't they teach you, not to touch what isn't yours?" The kid held his cheeks. "There's a place where they keep trouble makers and big kids who take what isn't theirs." She leaned in close to him "It's called jail." And whispered. The bully began to cry and ran inside, she then walked up to the child. "What about it? Feel like coming home with me today?" He raced into her hugging her. "I thought you weren't going to come back." "Idiot, didn't I say I was going to be back?" That same evening, he was officially adopted, with it he was given a full name "Christopher Nicholas Amberjack." He felt completed, but "don't adoption take an amount of time? Why am I going with you so fast?" he politely asked her, "You see Nicky, the truth is ... you've been officially adopted weeks ago." She avoided eye contact "Huh? Then why didn't you say something?" "Well you refuse to come with me, so I thought I'll play along until you're ready to come with me." "Huh!?" It was at this moment, 8-year-old Christopher Nicholas Amberjack knew, his new mother was messed up. Before they left, Sabina told him not to take anything with him, for he no longer needed anything. That all his belonging would be passed down to the other children and from now on all his needs and wants would be provided by her. Can she be out of her mind or maybe rich? He thought to himself, and so he was adopted.
They drove in a black sedan for about an hour and some minutes until she pulled up to an apartment building. It was 3 stories high ac. units in each room. It had a court yard with basketball hoops and a parking space. "We'll be staying here for a little while." She said as they exited the car and made their way inside through the front door. "Welcome back Sabina, I see you brought someone with you." "I'm back Mrs Wilson, this is Nicholas, he's gonna be staying with us from now." "Nice to meet you." He greeted her. "My, aren't you cute? Have a muffin." As she extended a small tray with freshly baked goodies. "Where's your luggage?" She asked them. "Ahh I didn't make him take anything, that's because he wouldn't be needing anything from there, I'll be the one providing for him now on." The old lady smiled at her as they waved back ascending the stairway. "Who was she? She seemed nice." Nicholas asked "that's Mrs. Wilson, she's somewhat of a caretaker of the building, she lives here all alone, excluding the renters, be nice to her when you see her." She said to him as they came to the second floor she dug into her jacket took out a key and opened the door to their room. It was a 1-bedroom living apartment; it was extremely clean minus the flew empty beer cans on the table. "It's not much, but make yourself home for now." She said closing the door behind her locking it. "The toilet and bath are to the right, next to it is the bedroom, now shower before dinner." "But I don't have any clothes." "Oh, I bought some for you, it's in the bedroom now run along." After showing and dressing into a cars printed pajamas, he was drawn to the smell of something delicious. Sabina had prepared a meal of tuna casserole. After eating his fill, he helped tidy the table and cleaned the dishes. While Sabina got cleaned up, he made his way to the living room where he couldn't help but read the magazine but was beaten by sleepiness and fell asleep. When Sabina came out and saw him asleep, she picked him up and carried him to the bedroom. After tucking him in she gently rubbed his head. "I wish you can see this; Your boy ... is finally with me." She whispered. She secretly took a picture of him sleeping.