Mould me after Your Heart;

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Family

Looking outside the window from my barren musty-smelling room has become a regular pastime for me. While my roommates buzzed around enthusiastically sharing their days worth of pranks, I would lie on the cold hard straw mattress and gaze silently at the long gravel road filled with vehicles of all kinds. Only at this time of the day would it be so congested - grown ups behind the steering wheel were either reading a section of the Business Times or glancing at their watches, others stood around under opened brightly coloured umbrellas complaining of the sweltering heat to each other.

Yet all were waiting for that same moment, where the bell would sound the end of another day of school and excited beguiled children would come streaming out in neatly pressed azure coloured uniforms. The response of the parents were always the same, any conversation was dropped, a welcoming warm smile and a hug now and then followed by the fussing of slightly crumpled shirts or heavy school bags..

I have always wanted to be part of a real family. Parents who would fuss over me each day and fill my lunchbox with new treats every week. Yes, I have heard many fairytale-like stories of goodnight kisses and the warm fuzzy hugs like the wrapping of thickest delvet in the world, when the nights were cold and thunder raged. However, these were only nibblets of the real thing brought back from those adopted children who returned to visit the orphanage .

Pulling back the dusty and tattered curtains, I lay back onto the stiff board, back into my world of fantasy, alone. The room was oddly quiet and still. Hearing giggles down the corridor outside my dormitory, I slid off my bunk and crept curiously, yet suspiciously, towards the door to take a peek outside. The sight that met my eyes stunned me momentarily. “Happy birthday, Eleanor!” Almost everyone I knew stood behind all that they could afford: a huge cardboard piece with a drawn portrait of all the children at the orphanage, with the usual birthday wish. As they sang the chirrupy birthday song, their smiles and laughter finally made me realize what I had been missing all this while. These people gave me all they could give – their love. Looking at the hand-drawn faces on the board, it dawned suddenly upon me. I already had a family. They were right there in front of me.

Labels: story

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