A Dangerous Life [Teacher/Student]

An Orphan's Christmas

“So what’s up with your uncle and his dad?”

“I don’t know.”

“So how is Christmas going to work out then?”

“That’s a good question. My mom just told me to act normal and not to bring up the elephant in the room when we get there.”

“What’s the elephant?”

“I know right! It’s hard as hell when they don’t tell you shit. Found em!” he yelled pulling out a cardboard box filled with camera tapes. Logan pulled one out and put it inside his camera. He looked up and smiled. “It works! Let’s go hook this up to your T.V.” I followed him into the living room and watched him as he hooked up the camera to the T.V. I invited him over to help me look for the videos Beth made. I know they weren’t all of me and some had other kids from the orphanage in them. Since I knew Beth was close to Logan I figured he’d be in a good chunk of them too.

This was as close as kids like us were going to get to home movies.

“So this is a project my uncle gave you?” He plopped down on the couch next to me and handed me the bowl of chips.

“Yeah we’re supposed to make a documentary about our families but circling around our parents, how they were raised and how it affects us. He doesn’t know about my situation being I have no foster parents. I told him their constantly on business trips.”

“Yeah he asked me about that. He wanted to know if I met them while I was over here.”

“What did you say?”

“I lied and I kind of feel bad about it. I said I didn’t see them but I saw pictures.”

“It’s not a big lie. You didn’t see them.” He shrugged.

“Are you going to tell Lyle the truth one day?”

“Maybe.” I mumbled stuffing some chips into my mouth. The girl on the screen was a girl I recognized. I didn’t pay much attention because I remembered her as a little bitch who would whisper things about me outside my door. So I kept talking to Logan. “Is this going to be your first family Christmas?”

“Uh, no. When I was in foster care I would bounce around from family to family, but I would stay for a relatively…I stayed long enough to get comfortable. There were a couple of families I got to stay with through Christmas. Some were nice, some weren’t but I did have family Christmases before I met my mom for the first time. How about you? How was Christmas for you after you left the orphanage?”

“I wasn’t bounced around I was just stuck with the one woman that they put me with. She was…I’m not going to sugar coat it she was abusive. She hit me, kicked me down stairs, and locked me in my room while she went out. Told me I was worthless and a piece of shit, said nobody loved me. So I didn’t really get to celebrate any holidays in that house except the required ones.”