Michael

Mr. and Mrs. Flynn followed the pretty secretary into the orphanage’s head office. Politely asking them to sit down, she told them that the social worker and matron would be there shortly and walked out of the room with the tiniest air of arrogance, stilettos click-clacking on the linoleum floor.

The couple glanced around the office. It was nothing out of the ordinary, nothing more or less than they had expected. The children were angels too. Every last one of them. The Flynns talked to the children on the playground. Every child had smiled back with the same hopeful, beautiful eyes. Anna smiled at her husband. Soon, they might bring one of those children home to raise as their own. Her hand found David’s and he clasped onto it, kissing it lightly.

“This will work out,” David looked into her eyes as he spoke. Anna knew it would. The sound of softer footsteps indicated the arrival of the matron, followed shortly after by a business-like woman with her ginger hair in a bun, square-framed glasses pushed up the bridge of her nose.

“I’m Sheryl,” she said curtly, shaking both Anna’s hand and David’s. “We spoke on the phone.”

David nodded. “Yes, I remember.”

The matron smiled as she pulled up a chair for Sheryl. “So you two are looking to adopt?”

Anna opened her mouth and closed it again. David answered instead. “Yes, matron. We are.” Anna shuffled through the folder they brought and placed it on the desk.

“Sheryl told us you would need to see our qualifications and papers. These are the ones you need, right?” Anna’s voice was shaking. She couldn’t tell if she was nervous or excited. Maybe neither. Maybe both.

The social worker nodded as she leafed through the folder. “Very well. I will need to discuss some things with the matron.”

The matron smiled at them again in her kindly way. “Why don’t you talk to the children? I saw you on the playground earlier. Perhaps you’d like to draw with some of the other children?” The Flynns followed her to a room full of tiny little desks and tiny chairs. “This is our junior art room. We’ll come find you again in a bit, Mr. and Mrs. Flynn.”

“Please, call me David. And my wife’s name is Anna.” The matron gave them one last smile before she disappeared.

Anna’s blue eyes swept over the room, taking in tiny tables and their tiny occupants. “Oh David,” she breathed, “I want one.”

David smiled and kissed her temple. “Me too, Annie.” He pulled out a chair next to a dark-haired boy. “Hey, there,” he greeted the boy. “What’s your name?”

The boy looked up, curious, hazel eyes examining the couple. “My name’s Gerard.” He picked up a blue crayon and went back to coloring.

Anna sat down at well. “I’m Annie,” she said, picking up some of the boy’s other drawings. “Do you like to draw?”

The little boy grinned, showing all his baby teeth when he saw Anne smile approvingly at his pictures. “I love to draw! I’m real good at coloring,” he stated proudly, gesturing towards his collection. “I never go outside the lines.”

“Wow, that’s excellent,” David ruffled Gerard’s hair, picking up a picture. He studied it for a minute. “Is this your family Gerard?”

Gerard nodded as he took the picture, pointing at every figure. “This is my mommy and my daddy.” He pointed at a man in a suit and a woman in a red dress, both with wings and halos. “They’re in Heaven now, so they’re angels.” Anna wanted to scoop the child up in her arms and squeeze him. But he continued with his presentation. “This is me,” he pointed to a slightly shorter figure of a boy with two brown dots for eyes. “And this is my brother,” he finished, pointing to the smallest figure on the page.

“Aww, sweetie,” Anna gushed before she could help it, “That’s really good. Is your brother here too?”

Gerard nodded again. “He’s playing on the swings. He likes the swings,” he explained. “His name’s Michael, but I like to call him Mikey. I’m drawing this picture for him!” He held up the picture he was coloring. It was a blue unicorn. “Mikey likes it when I draw unicorns for him.”

“That’s a great unicorn!” David said, holding up a picture he drew himself. “Do you like my airplane?” Anna couldn’t help but giggle. David was hopeless at drawing. Gerard’s unicorn and family portrait were much better, even though the boy told David the airplane was ‘cool’.

“Do you like my unicorn, Annie?” he asked her, brown eyes glowing.

“I love it,” she smiled at him. “Do you like it?”

Gerard considered the question for a moment. Tilting his head to the side, he answered decisively, “I love it.”

“Ger--”

“Oh, Mr. and Mrs. Flynn, I see you’ve met Gerard.” Anna looked up to see the matron giving them another one of her motherly smiles. “He wants to be an artist when he grows up.”

“That’s right!” the boy exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear. “And Annie says I’m real good.”

The matron smiled again and as Anna shared a glance with her husband, she knew he was thinking the same thing: the smiles were getting slightly creepy. But Anna supposed it was part of the job. Be nice to the parents, find homes for the kids.

The motherly woman lowered her voice as she led the Flynns away. “Gerard lost his parents in a car accident less than a year ago. The poor boy has no one left but his brother and Michael’s only two years old.”

Anna let out a small “Oh,”

David took her fingers in his. “Matron, how old is Gerard? He can’t be more than six.”

“He’s five. But he’s rather mature for his age, even in a place full of children who’ve gone through the same ordeal. And he seems to have taken a liking to you.”

Anna looked back at the boy. He was too adorable for words. “We’ve taken a liking to him, actually.” David nodded in agreement.

“That’s great. So at least we know you’re the parenting type!” the elderly woman laughed. “And speaking of which, we went through your papers and everything seems to be in order. We just need to do a few verifications and confirm some things. Legal obligations, really.”

“And how long will that take?” David asked.

“Oh, not long. It usually doesn’t take more than a few days. So we’ll take care of everything and once we get through the waiting list, we’ll call you when there’s a child ready to be taken home.”

Anna took the matron’s hand. “Thank you. Really. For everything.” Her words were sincere.

“Oh, it’s no problem,” the matron blushed slightly. “All in a day’s work.” She turned to leave. “Be sure to say goodbye to Gerard. He really does seem to like you.”

Anna needed nothing else. She went back to her seat next to the angelic little boy. He finished his unicorn and had started drawing a car. “Hey Gerard. Do you like cars?”

Gerard looked up from his drawing. “Yeah! Cars are neat! I like green ones!”
“Wow. I like green cars too!” David took a crayon and began helping Gerard color before looking hesitantly at the clock. Anna saw it too.

“Gerard, sweetie, David and I have to go now.” She ruffled his hair one last time.

“Will you come back to draw with me again?” There was no missing the hope in his voice.

“Of course we will. Bye-bye now, sweetheart.”

“Bye-bye Annie! Bye-bye David!” As Anna walked towards the car, arm in arm with her husband, watching Gerard wave goodbye was the only thing she needed to know that she wanted to care for a little soul like his.