Secret Rendezvous

Prologue

It was a very important day in the life for me. I'm Credence, the kid who everyone bypassed in a line for food and who always got snow washed in winter. My story begins from New York's Manhattan. It was the year 1909 and I was waiting for my adoption in a one of Manhattan's orphanages at the age of five. I remember this day just like yesterday.

15 years earlier:

"Tom?" "Here!" "Anthony?" "Here!" "Christopher?" "Here!" "Sarah?" "Here!" "Credence?" No answer. "I think he locked himself up in the bathroom again, miss Smith" a kid said. Miss Smith sighed. "I'll go check him" The kids giggled when she was gone.

There was a knock on the bathroom's door. "Credence?" I was sitting on a dirty bathroom's corner hugging my knees waiting her to go away. Bang bang bang. "Credence, would you come out please? I know you're there." I sighed. It was really nice to be here at the orphanage, even though the other kids were harsh to me at a times. But I wasn't going anywhere, the world is a dangerous place to live in you know. "Credence, do we have to call the janitor again? Open the door. Lady Barebone is going to be here at any minute!" Oh my god. Barebone? There was no way I would open the door. "Credence, I promise everything is going to be okay. Now open the door, would you? We're having a dinner soon." My stomach growled. I usually wouldn't have said anything, but this was an emergency. "What do we have for dinner?" "Meatballs!" I could hear miss Smith laughing from the other side of the door. "Meatballs?!" I opened the door immediately. (I don't know what five year old me was thinking at this point. It took me awhile to forgive myself for opening the door.) "Change your clothes, lady Barebone is going to be here very soon." I nodded. She handed me a white cotton shirt, black vest, a small bow and long grey trousers with big legs. It wasn't the best combination, but I ran upstairs to my room and changed anyway.

My parents had died a couple of years earlier, and I missed them (and still miss) every day. In the orphanage I was just a one kid in the crowd and I really hoped I would be important to someone and the best that had ever happened to them. You can always dream about it...

Just when I was ready at the table the doorbell rang. I immediately remembered what I originally signed up for, but it was too late to escape. "Okay kids, form a queue. And smile!" I looked up at the ceiling of the room and tried my best to smile. I didn't feel like smiling at all. Then I heard miss Smith laughing and talking with a stranger in my orphanage's vestibule. "Good luck, friend" Anthony said and gave me a bit broken smile. "You too." I quickly returned my gaze to the ceiling of the room. Anthony was the only kid who had been nice to me for the whole time. I heard he got adopted to a happy family a couple of months later. (Anthony died to tuberculosis at the age of twelve, four years after my adoption. I saw an obituary about him on the local newspaper back then.)

I saw a short woman with a brown polka cut entering the room. She was wearing black stockings and leather shoes, and she had a long black skirt and a fur jacket on. (It was pretty chill in the orphanage and it was winter after all.) I noticed that she had sky blue eyes, maybe a bit gray. I did cannot see any fond in them even though she was smiling. I got scared. The lady walked back and forth in front of us and it seemed like she was rating us inside her mind just like animals or something. She looked very strict. "You." She pointed at me. "Me?" The lady nodded. "What's your name?" "Credence, ma'am." I have no idea how all of sudden I sounded so confident. All the kids in the queue were looking at me like a ghost. (Except Anthony, of course.) "I'll take him." "All right, miss Barebone." Miss Smith smiled, and started to sign an adoption application on her hand. "This was all planned. I am the best dressed here." I thought inside my mind. I was frightened. "Your full name?" "Mary-Lou Barebone."

//Hope you guys like my first fic so far :)