The Orphanage

The minutes were going by slowly, it even felt like time was frozen. This scenario was familiar, but I didn't want it to end the same way. Five years ago I lost my father from a car accident. A year ago the doctors told us that my mother had cancer and it didn't get better. Now she was very weak and had to stay in the hospital. One of the doctors approached me and said that I could see my mum. She looked at me with faint smile when I came in, I knew that she was trying to stay strong for me: "There you are Rachel, happy birthday. I'm sorry that I couldn't buy you something nice."

I gave her a hug: "Doesn't matter mum, the only gift I need is you being alive." She stopped smiling and tried changing the subject: "Why won't you go out and celebrate your birthday, you know that you don't need to stay in this hospital." I didn't really have friends, everyone at school ignored me, I didn't even get any message for my birthday. However, I didn't want my mother to know that: "I don't really feel like celebrating it, I rather want to stay with you." She held my hand: "Try to sleep then, It looks like you haven't slept in days." I nodded and closed my eyes.

I dreamt about my mum getting better and that we went on vacation together. But suddenly she fell down, like she was having a heart attack. Then I woke up and saw that my mum wasn't in her bed. There was a nurse sitting on it, trying to wake me up: "Where is my mother?" I already knew the answer, but was hoping that she would say something different: "I'm sorry, she passed away." I couldn't stop crying, I knew what was going to happen next. A woman picked me up from the hospital and brought me home, so I could pack some stuff. I didn't pack a lot, just some clothes and pictures. Then she brought me to an orphanage.

I entered the orphanage and it was very quiet, except for this weird looking lady behind a desk, she was calling someone. I approached the desk and waited for the call to end. She finally finished the call after five minutes and looked at me like I was some filth from the street: "You must be Rachel." I nodded and she handed me some papers and a pen: "Please fill in this form."

I sat down and started filling in the form. It was some basic stuff like: name, age, date of birth... Meanwhile did the lady start calling someone again.

I finished filling in the form and gave it to the lady, now there was a man standing at the desk too. The lady looked at the form: "Oh.. Today is your birthday..." I nodded and said: "Yea, I turned 16 today." She looked at the form again: "Well, just follow this man, he will lead you to your room." Why did everyone look so weird!? It was like they all came from a horror movie. The room was just like a jail cell, it had a bed and some place to store some stuff.

Later that day it was time for dinner. I left my room, only to see this guy in front of me: "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" I was a bit surprised, nobody ever wished me a happy birthday, except for my parents: "Uhm, thank you, I guess..." The guy smiled at me: "Hi, I'm Austin."

"Rachel" I said quickly, still surprised that he knew that it was my birthday: "I can show you where the cafeteria is, if you want." I nodded and followed him: "How did you know that it is my birthday?" He laughed: "Well I heard you at the reception."

We entered the cafeteria and he gave me an explanation of all the people: "Over there are the people who are here since their birth, they are pretty alright. Those are the people who were abandoned later in their life, because their parents got sick of them. And over there are the sad fucks, they lost both their parents. They're pretty annoying since they talk about their parents all the time and cry about it. So what group do you belong in?"

I was silent for a minute, but then said: "The sad fucks"

"Shit, I'm sorry, I didn't know!" I shrugged: "You couldn't know..." I walked away and sat at a table where there was a free spot. Austin sat in front of me: "Hey, I really didn't know. I hope that we can be friends." Nobody ever told me that they wanted to be my friend: "Uhm... sure, how did you end up here anyway?"