The Senior Project

Chapter Fourteen | A Tale About A Boy

CHAPTER FOURTEEN~
A TALE ABOUT A BOY

James had a sad story and he told it bluntly, factually, without much emotion other than his jagged, broken sentences.

After losing his parents and becoming separated from his sister, he was stuffed into multiple foster homes. He was always moving, never settling. His childhood was a train wreck of bad luck, filled with teasing and laughter because 'his parents never loved him'. Until the Pierces. Holly and Samuel Pierce took him in for one of the best periods in his life.

They were his first true taste of family, he'd said. Nice people who loved me like their own.

That's where his ice cream sundae competition came from. He, Holly and Samuel used to do them once every two months. They offered him his first taste of normalcy. It was a nice neighbourhood too, no one laughed at him for being different, for being adopted. Until, as good things must, it came to an end as the couple ran into some financial troubles and were forced to give him up.

The next few years were like all the other ones.

"I was young then," James said at present, his eyes glassy with unshed tears. "I didn't understand financial troubles, I was told –no, they promised me they'd get me back. They promised!" His voice resembled that of a petulant child. Not in the irritating sense, in the broken sense; as if he was still a naïve child, as if his trust in people hadn't been destroyed before this.

I took this time to shift closer to him and obliterate the small centimetre of space between us. He leaned into me briefly before sitting upright again.

"They never took me back, I haven't seen them since. So my young mind thought, if they couldn't love me? Who would?" James laughed bitterly. "The next family forced me to grow up. They had kids of their own, you see and I was an unwelcome addition. More often than not, I was left to fend for myself. After about a year of coddling from the Pierces, I wasn't used to this sudden independence. I was always at the window, waiting for Holly or Sam to come back and get me. So this new family gave up on me, labelling me as an impossible child."

James was clenching his fists and hugging himself closely. Telling me meant he was reliving the whole thing. I hated seeing him so miserable and so damn lonely but my curiosity also fought to be satisfied.

"Foster parents just couldn't hang onto me. I kept trying and placing renewed hope and trust into each family but I was messed up, breaking up even further with each passing family. I grew up in a system that involved too many crappy families. I was rather unlucky, there are plenty of amazing foster families out there. Anyway, by the time I got to the Wilsons I was a massive mess of untrusting, angry, preteen. I don't know what possessed them to adopt me, but they did. And they even went so far as to track down Callie to reunite us. That was all whole lotta luck."

"And now, here you are," I whispered.

"Here I am," he echoed, his face tilted skywards.

Darkness had long since fallen and sky was cloudless, offering an amazing view of the stars, well, as amazing as the view could get in the city. I could see the Big Dipper with its North Star and countless other constellations that surrounded it. They were so old and so constant. How many people had looked up, or were looking up to these same twinkling diamonds to find some hope? To wish that one of those stars was a deceased loved one? To guide their way when they were lost?

I had. Countless times. I could spend ages puzzling over the stars, trying to find answers that were etched amongst them, some sort of map to life.