Reaching my hand out Ivy places her calloused one in mine and I look around the orphanage bedroom, the room lined with bunks, for the children we looked after for eight years. I would miss them. I give Ivy’s hand a squeeze and she squeezes mine back, but I don’t let go as we walk out of the bedroom. We walk up the long corridors, passing each room and it saddens me knowing I would not wake up tomorrow to little faces to clean, and little hands dragging us from our bed to make them breakfast. The children here were the only good thing about this place. As we passed each room, I hesitated at Tyson’s door. I worried who would look after him, he is non-verbal and had a severe learning disability that Mrs. Daley refused to have him tested. I worried whether he would get fed or would Mrs. Daley lock him away again like she did when he first came here. He was such a sweet boy, just misunderstood.
Emotions threatened to choke me as I look at his little bed, the little bed I would sometimes climb into in the middle of the night to soothe his night terrors. The little bed filled with his scent. If I wasn’t going to my own funeral, I would take him with me, but death was no place for him. He deserved the world and I hoped one day he would have it at his little fingertips. It took all my willpower to keep walking. This would be the last time we walked these halls, the last time we saw the little faces we helped clean and the little hands we held. The corridors are silent as we descend the spiral staircase to the floor below.
Yet as we reached the bottom, the weight lifted off me. We were finally free, free of this life and free of Mrs. Daley and I would no longer have to hide whenever the butcher came to drop off meat. I would no longer have to see his face again after today. With that thought in mind I looked at Ivy, knowing she was feeling the exact same thing as me. We endured enough and today our suffering ended along with our lives.
“Let’s go home,” I whispered to her.
ᕦ(ಠ_ಠ)ᕤ୧( ಠ Д ಠ )୨୧( ಠ Д ಠ )୨ᕦ( ⊡ 益 ⊡ )ᕤᕦ( ⊡ 益 ⊡ )ᕤ୧| ͡ᵔ ﹏ ͡ᵔ |୨୧| ͡ᵔ ﹏ ͡ᵔ |୨୧| ͡ᵔ ﹏ ͡ᵔ |୨ᕦ⊙෴⊙ᕤᕦ⊙෴⊙ᕤ୧( ಠ Д ಠ )୨୧( ಠ Д ಠ )୨ᕦ( ⊡ 益 ⊡ )ᕤᕦ(ಠ_ಠ)ᕤᕦ(ಠ_ಠ)ᕤ୧( ಠ Д ಠ )୨ᕦ(ಠ_ಠ)ᕤᕦ( ⊡ 益 ⊡ )ᕤᕙ[･･]ᕗᕦ(ಠ_ಠ)ᕤᕦ( ⊡ 益 ⊡ )ᕤᕦ(ಠ_ಠ)ᕤ୧( ಠ Д ಠ )୨୧( ಠ Д ಠ )୨ᕦ(ಠ_ಠ)ᕤ୧| ͡ᵔ ﹏ ͡ᵔ |୨ᕦ⊙෴⊙ᕤ
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