by Mindee Bocangel

Created on: December 24, 2008

The orphanage was next to a river. The river was swollen in the spring and rapid in the fall. Nearby, linens hung across clothes lines. They smelled like ivory soap and a fresh breeze. The sun took a long time to set on summer nights. By the finale of the setting sun, crickets in the clover fields had long since taken to their calling. To a child, the soothing dissonance blunted out the indescribable loneliness.

How serenity and loss folded one upon the other, daily.

The child's ears were pricked at the music of the evening; Her eyes glistened at the sight of the world; working it's ways as it always had. So much more reliable than people, it seemed. You only had to deal with the sky being sunny or rainy. But you never had to deal with it being gone and far away. Winds rippled, and white sheets thundered softly.

A kind nurse came out with two tasks at hand.

To bring in the sheets, nicely folded; And, to bring in the little girl for dinner and bedtime. Silently and with a soft smile, she watched the little girl who stood in the center of the field. Little frogs, not too far at the water's edge, croaked and hopped around the bank. Always silent and bolting under the mud when the children got too near. A favorite game, the nurse knew, for the little girl to play, was to creep up to the bank of the river and spy on the plump frogs before they ever knew she was there.

" Did you see Jeremiah today, Jessie? " asked the nurse.

Wide eyed and startled the child turned towards the nurse. As soon as she saw who it was, she proceeded to run towards her caregiver. It was hard to tell if Jessie was holding back a smile or holding back her tears. But, when the little got next to the nurse, she timidly clasped on to the skirt of the nurse. She looked up as if asking the question with her eyes:

" Is mommy here to pick me and my brothers up, now?"

The waiting nurse pat Jessie's head of raven waves, told her how pretty she looked in the sunset and asked if she could help carry in the wash for the young ones. Being seven years old, Jessie was given a special task each evening. To help nurse Agatha make hospital corners on each of the beds; One corridor for each night of the week. Nurse Agatha always talked about Jessie's twin baby brothers in the nursery. Jessie missed them - so much that the nurses allowed her time with her brothers during feeding time each morning-. That was at five o'clock a.m.. For the rest of her life, Jessie was up and ready at five each morning- nearly.

Their final

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