THE ORPHANAGE

CHAPTER ONE

The weather was sunny but the temperature was good enough for the kids to go outside to play rather than being cooped in the house all the time, as they all had one defects or another Martha preferred them to play in the house under her watchful eyes. But everybody needs a little change sometimes but not Leslie, the 5 year old kid in the orphanage that doesn’t talk.

Martha and her husband took her in after her mother went on a killing spree and stabbed half of her family to death during thanksgiving, she is locked away in saint Paul’s rehabilitation centre but will soon be moved to somewhere more secured as she is considered dangerous and most not be let out of sight .

Unlike her twin Ashley, Leslie keeps to herself, doesn’t love to play with other children as she enjoys her own company. Playing with dolls and knocking over bricks, even when Martha tried to play with her, she keeps mute.

Leslie is petrified of knives as the last incident with her parents left her traumatized leaving a scar on her little innocent soul.

“Honey, I thought I wrote it down for you” Martha sighed as she kept the phone close to her ear with her neck and continued slicing the carrots, “ugh!” she groaned

“I won’t say this again, 12 pounds of butter, 15 cartons of milk, a basket of fresh fruits and 12 loaves of bread. Now hurry up the new kid will be here soon” she exhaled as she hung up and dropped the phone on the counter.

“Mrs. Martha, please help me down” Anthony said as he sat still on his wheelchair by the staircase, “I’m coming sweetie, just let me wash my hands” she quickly dropped the new and Juniper, her 17 year old daughter walked in

“hey mom” she greeted as she flung her bag on the counter, “thank Goodness, please help Anthony down will you?” Martha pointed to the staircase and she hurried up to help push Anthony’s wheelchair down gently.

“I’m hoping your father will be here soon, so we could sign the documents for the new kid?” Martha paced around in the kitchen as she has seemed to forget what she wanted to take.

“Another kid?” Juniper arched a brow as she let Anthony down and he rolled his wheelchair out to play, “yes honey” Martha answered, still focused on the sink

“We’re running out of space mom” Juniper pulled out a chair and sat by the counter, “I know sweetie but this is the last kid we’re accepting and he’ll be here any minute..” Martha said and the bell dinged, “or now” she rushed to get the door and two people walked in

A man wearing a suit with his hair pulled back and you could hardly see his eyes in those glasses, he’s clearly Japanese. And the woman next to him who seems to be his wife as the large wedding ring on her finger made it obvious. Her hair was pulled into a pony tail and she had little wrinkles in her smiles which shows she’s in her mid thirties.

“Welcome Mr. and Mrs. Nakamura” Martha quickly cleaned her hand with a rag and rushed towards them, “pleased to meet you” Mr. Nakamura smiled.

“please have your seat, my husband will be here soon” Martha gave a tight lipped smile and Peter walked in, “I’ve got everything on the list honey” he used his leg to closed the door and Martha rushed to help him with the grocery bags on his arm, “they are here” she whispered to him

“I guess I’m just in time then” he hung his jacket and walked over to seat opposite them, “Mr. and Mrs. Nakamura, pleased to meet you. I’m peter, Martha’s husband” he cleared his throat as he introduced himself.

“We’re pleased to be here, if you can recall what we discussed over the phone. We would love to drop our son here, in your custody” Mr. Nakamura adjusted uncomfortably on the couch, “yes I do recall but what I don’t understand is why you would love to leave your son with us” Peter shrugged and Martha joined him on seat.

“you see, our son is….” Mrs. Nakamura swallowed, “he has become a problem and we heard about how you take care of troubled kids, maybe you can help my little boy and we’ll come back for him” she continued.

“a problem?, I don’t want to open closed wounds Mrs. Nakamura,  but since he’ll be in our custody we will like to know the kind of behavior your son exhibits” Martha pulled her top down to cover her protruding belly as she is five months pregnant.

“He was considered dangerous in his old school and he we had to withdraw him, he stabbed a kid in the neck with a pencil. he is a mysterious child. Ever since we had him it’s like he changes every day.” Mr. Nakamura gesticulated

“Other schools wouldn’t accept him because of his features” Mrs. Nakamura sniffled and Martha handed her a tissue, “pardon me” she whispered as tears dropped from her eyes.

“what features?” peter asked in a curious tone and his eye brows furrowed into confusion, “his eyeballs are two different colors and during class in his old school his teacher said he started to scream and act violent as he smashed stuff continuously” Mrs. Nakamura explained.

“until we got home and we found an upside down cross carved on his chest, still bleeding as it was fresh and he said he didn’t do it to himself” Mr. Nakamura continued. Peter and Martha took quick glances at each other  

 “oh..um, what’s the name of your kid? And how old is he?” Martha arched a brow, “kalian, he’s 6” Mrs. Nakamura sighed and Peter grunts.

“excuse me for a minute while I deliberate with my wife” Peter gave a tight lipped smile as his dragged Martha to the kitchen.

“Are you sure we want to adopt this kid?” he asked and she was lost of words for a while, “I mean. Ugh.. he’s clearly a troubled child and we can help him” Martha shrugged

“Troubled? They just said he has an upside down cross that came out of nowhere, for all we know he could be the anti Christ.” Peter whispered in great disagreement

“What if..What if he’s not all that bad?” Martha rubbed her temple, “he could be bad, and bad luck even. What if he just wakes up one day and decides to push Anthony off his wheel chair or scare Leslie with a knife and then she passes out and with your condition, I don’t think you can handle much stress” Peter pointed to her belly and she sighed

“let’s just give him a chance peter, okay?” Martha asked softly and he sighed before nodding positively

“so where’s Kalian?” Martha asked as she sat down, “I’ll go get him” Mrs. Nakamura went outside and peter brought out some documents and handed it to Mr. Nakamura.

“these are the documents you need to sign to indicate that you gave us Kalian to keep in our custody” Peter picked up a pen from his back pocket, “we’ll also sign it too” he added as Mr. Nakamura took close look at the document.

The door closed as Mrs. Nakamura walked in with Kalian, “this is kalian” she brought him to the middle of the room

The boy is black haired, not too tall for his age. His left eye is green and the other is blue, not smiling he stood observing the house with a blank expression on his face, playing nervously with his fingers.

“so please sign it, let’s get this over with” peter added and they proceeded to sign the papers without any hestitaion.

“Alright then, thank you very much” Mr. Nakamura gave peter a handshake and so did the ladies. “we’ll be taking our leave now” Mrs. Nakamura said and walked towards Kalian.

“be good sweetie, we’ll be back for you okay?” she said with tears almost dropping from her eyes, “you are not going to leave me here are you?” Kalian asked

And Mrs. Nakamura was quiet for a while and bent down to hold Kalian by the shoulders, “they want to just spend a little time with you while we travel…we’ll be back just be a good boy” she lied and Kalian’s expression changed into that of disappointment

Mrs. Nakamura pulled Kalian into a hug, “you’ll pay for this, I promise you mummy” Kalian whispered in her ear and she pulled quickly from the hug and watched him smirk before running to hug Martha.

Still stunned, Mr. Nakamura helped his wife out the door and they drove off.