Love is a Language

Feeling the Heat

It was Summertime. The last few months had been dry and hot. There was talk of a drought if they didn't get some sort of moisture. Spring had been warm, but there had been no rain all season. The snowfall from the Winter months had been enough for a little while, but the villagers were starting to show concern. Mister McCrae showed concern about the state of the old house that was Miss Trelawny's orphanage, fearing an electrical problem would burn the house down, but Miss Trelawny had faith in her home. "This house has faced worse before," she had assured him. "It's stood for much longer than I've been in this town. It can survive another Summer." Despite this though, Mister McCrae still had his doubts. He trusted his lovely Evelynn, he really did, but a sense of doom slowly crept over him as the Summer months progressed.

The first few weeks of August had been the worst the little town had ever seen. There was no reprieve from the dry, scorching heat. Cold drinks and swimming pools could only do so much for so long. Even Miss Trelawny's children were having trouble finding fun things to do this particular year. It was too hot to go outside most days, but they felt cooped up and bored if they stayed inside for too long. Miss Trelawny did her best, but it was plain to see that the weather was starting to take its toll on her too. Not only that, but the children had been seeing men in dark suits coming to the orphanage for the last few months. What worried them was that every time one or two came over, she would nearly be in tears by the time they left.

"Do you think they're trying to take us away?" Henry whispered to Pierre one night after a particularly long visit from a man in a grey suit and a balding forehead. Miss Trelawny had yelled at him to get out of the house, which had frightened all the young ones-she'd never yelled at them before, and hearing her yell at another grownup made them wonder just how upset she really was. "Is that why she's so scared of them?"

Pierre thought about it for a moment, then shook his head. "I don't think they want us," he whispered back. This made Henry feel slightly better, and he snuggled closer to the French boy. "But," Pierre went on slowly, wrapping his arms around Henry again, "I think they want something from her. Like the house." Even though he spoke in a whisper, the worry was evident in his voice. "Maybe they want money from her. My papa had visits from them sometimes, but they went away happy after. He never yelled at them." Pierre had been talking a little more about his family in the last few months. Henry guessed that it was because it had been almost a year ago that he'd been brought to the orphanage, and a year since he had seen his family, whatever had happened to them.

Henry buried his face in Pierre's chest. "I hope they don't take the house," he murmured into Pierre's nightshirt. "There's a lot of us. We don't have anywhere to go." Pierre nodded in agreement, playing with the ends of Henry's hair absentmindedly. Henry had been trying to grow it out to be Pierre's length since Summer began, so it was longer than it had been when Pierre had first met him. "Is Miss Trelawny going to move us somewhere else?" he asked suddenly, looking up into Pierre's deep blue eyes.

"Non," Pierre reassured him, though he could still see doubt in the little boy's green eyes. "I think she'll keep us here. As long as she can." He kissed Henry's forehead, smiling a little at the pleased giggle Henry responded with. "Everything will be alright, oui?" He felt Henry nod in response and his smile grew bigger. He rested their foreheads together, bumping Henry's nose with his own. The two boys shared a soft giggle before going silent again. "No matter what happens," Pierre murmured, "we'll always be together."

"Promise?" Henry asked, gripping onto the front of Pierre's nightshirt slightly tighter. "Do you promise we will? Toujours et toujours?" He wanted to hear Pierre promise again, just like he had back in the Winter days.

Seeming to understand Henry's insistence, Pierre smiled softly at him and gave him the softest of kisses on Henry's lips. "Toujours et toujours," he repeated. "We'll be together forever and always. I promise."